Housing charity Peter McVerry Trust to open Cork office

Charity said it would focus on renovating long-term vacant buildings in the city for reuse as social housing

The charity's CEO, Pat Doyle, said they are in the final stages of preparing for the opening of the new regional office in Cork city centre. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, plans to open a regional office in Cork to help drive “ambitious” social housing plans.

The charity, which has just completed its first full year of operations in the Cork region, said it would focus on renovating long-term vacant buildings in the city for reuse as social housing. Most of the projects will deliver one-bedroom homes.

It is working on five separate projects in the city at the moment – all small- to medium-sized multi-unit schemes for leasing or purchase. It hopes to deliver 20 additional units this year and more than that in 2022.

And in the county, it said it was working on projects in Bantry and Cobh, both of which will be ready for tenants next month, and hopes to bring forward potential projects in Bantry, Charleville, Mallow, Midleton, and Fermoy, which could see up to 50 units delivered.

Last year, the charity worked with 59 people across the region. Its largest single scheme in the area is in Youghal, where the charity secured 11 social housing units by working with a property owner to reuse a building that had lain vacant since 2008.

“At present, we are working with 28 households, with a total of 68 people across these homes,” the charity’s chief executive, Pat Doyle, said.

“We are now in the final stages of preparing for the opening of our new regional office in Cork city centre, which will service the southern region.

“We will be hiring for roles in this office, including for our housing with supports team and a regional fundraising manager.” 

Very successful year

In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, the charity said it had a very successful year in terms of housing development and in progressing people into housing, with almost half of its social housing tenancies at the end of 2020 being Housing First tenancies.

“Last year was an incredibly challenging one for everyone in society,” Mr Doyle said.

“As a result of Covid-19, the trust faced numerous unforeseen challenges.

“We also adapted our service delivery to offer continued supports to people in need.

Last year was by far and away the best year we have experienced in terms of housing delivery and progressing people into housing.

“Overall, we helped 1,300 people secure a new home and directly delivered 150 social housing units.

“This included housing right across the country in key areas such as Dublin and Kildare but also in new areas such as Cork, Galway, Kerry and Wexford.

“The delivery of these new homes came about not just because of greater availability of apartments due to the collapse of the Airbnb market, but because of more success in tackling long-term vacant homes through schemes like the Repair and Leasing Scheme, where, for example, we worked to deliver the first two units under that scheme in Cork City last year.” 

The charity was founded by Fr Peter McVerry in 1983. Last year, it worked with more than 7,800 individuals.