St Vincent de Paul warn that housing crisis is creating "new poor"

The dangers of ignoring the “new poor” have been highlighted by the Society of the St Vincent de Paul which has warned that the current homelessness crisis is being accompanied by a “hidden” crisis of those on the brink of losing their lodgings.

The charity organisation has launched its Christmas fundraising drive: the first of 1,000 hampers to households in the Cork City and suburbs region were dispatched yesterday, with the last to be issued on December 21.

This comes towards the end of what the charity said was a busy year, with the number of calls and contacts to its South West regional office as high as in 2014, and still way above the levels of just a few years ago.