Dublin Simon enduring 'grimmest' homeless situation in 20 years with spiralling demand
According to the review, 75% of those presenting to Dublin Simon’s clinical services are presenting for the first time with physical health and addiction issues and 68% of those accessing Sure Steps Counselling are first-time presenters.
Dublin Simon has warned that many people stuck in homelessness are "losing hope" as they now face increasing waiting times for mental health and detox support in addition to the stresses of the housing crisis.
The charity released its annual review which showed that there is growing demand for help, with more complex cases than ever. The organisation's chief executive, Sam McGuinness, said: "In my nearly 20 years as CEO of Dublin Simon Community, the situation today is the grimmest I have ever seen."
The charity serves Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan and supported 6,602 people across frontline and support services in what Mr McGuinness said was "one of the most difficult and dangerous years in modern times".
"It is very difficult to tell people in crisis that they will have to wait, but that is exactly what is happening," he wrote in the review.
"As the demand for housing and homeless services rise, our clients are becoming hopeless and desperate, In 2021, the number of people exiting Dublin Simon's emergency accommodation was 23% lower than the previous year.
"Additionally, the increasing demands mean that our clients have to wait longer to receive critical treatment and more intense supports to enable them to live independently. The waiting time to access Sure Steps Counseling increased from 22 days in 2020 to 37 days in 2021, the waiting time to access our Detox service increased from 76 days in 2020 to 86 days in 2021."
According to the review, 75% of those presenting to Dublin Simon’s clinical services are presenting for the first time with physical health and addiction issues and 68% of those accessing Sure Steps Counselling are first-time presenters.
The number of people accessing Dublin Simon's education and employability services increased by 62% last year, while 44% of Detox clients have been homeless for over five years.
Mr McGuinness, who steps down from his role next week, also wrote of the "unprecedented challenges" still to be faced, including ballooning cost-of-living expenses and energy costs amid an ongoing housing crisis, warning that more people are likely to fall into homelessness as a result.
The review showed 1,152 adults and children supported by Dublin Simon settlement teams in moving out of homelessness last year, while the charity provided more than 340,000 meals and provided thousands of hours of counselling.
Meanwhile, its Assertive Street Outreach team which engages with adults sleeping rough, made 5,225 contacts across all four local authority areas in Dublin last year, involving 1,898 individuals.
The sense of being stuck in homelessness was conveyed by Dublin Simon resident Ken Eivers, who said: "It’s all waiting - waiting, waiting, waiting every day. For a phone call, for a referral, for confirmation you have somewhere to sleep that night.
"And that’s not even anywhere near the stage of moving into a home. When you go into emergency accommodation you soon learn that nothing moves quickly in this system and it’s all out of your control. It wears you down.”
