Planned Cork city day centre for homeless in jeopardy due to funding delays, says TD  

A day centre for homeless people in Cork city would benefit vulnerable people, the health service, city business owners, and gardaí, but funding delays could jeopardise the plans, a Cork TD has said.

Cork North Central TD Colm Burke told The Echo that he was “very concerned” about the funding procurement, because the owner of the premises they had identified may not wait indefinitely for the HSE to purchase the building.

The former minister of state at the department of health said: “There’s over 600 homeless people in the city, and while there are places to sleep at night, those in shelters have nowhere to go all day. This is seriously affecting businesses in the city, so it must be prioritised. We started this project over 14 months ago and it’s disappointing to hear that there’s still no commitment for funding.”

Difficult

A suitable premises may be difficult to find again, Mr Burke said, explaining: “The lack of a funding commitment may put the entire project in danger.”

“The centre opening would take pressure off lots of places in the city; the one that’s most affected is probably the Mercy Hospital.

“The HSE is spending €2m a year on staff dealing with homelessness in Cork, but they’re all across different locations. The idea for this centre is that they’ll all move in and there will be a range of services at no cost to the HSE, because the staff are already in place. The only cost will be the work that needs to be done on the building.”

Mr Burke added that although it was a different type of service, the supervised injection facility in Dublin has had 4,200 attendances since it opened in December 2024, and there have been 59 overdoses there, of which 58 were handled on site, with just one person having to be transferred to hospital.

“It just goes to show that having a basic service in place with a health team can be of huge benefit to people who are homeless. Those 59 people could have otherwise been found on the side of the road, having been there three or four hours.

“This day centre would benefit people who are homeless, the health service, gardaí, and rate payers in the city.” He added that he plans to speak to the health minister about the project.

Business case

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told The Echo that HSE South West has “engaged with HSE estates to assess the business case, with a view to securing funding in the capital plan”. The health department “is supportive of the proposal for the integrated inclusion health hub and is committed to working with the HSE and the minister for health to secure funding under the capital plan”, they added.

A HSE spokesperson added that they, too, are “committed to developing this homeless day centre and actively pursuing funding”.