Cork homeless charity has 'never seen' the level of strain support services are now under

The number of rough sleepers in the South-West was listed as 122, according to Department of Housing figures. File picture

A Cork charity has said it has “literally never seen” the kind of pressure homelessness services are under at the moment, as new figures show the lack of available beds across the system just as the no-fault eviction ban expired.

While the South-West region, which includes Cork and Kerry, had the most beds (38) available for use for emergency accommodation on March 31, many regions had no beds available.

And in fact, in Cork the service were also under strain but the total for the South-West region was brought up by a surplus in Kerry.

In Dublin, just five adult beds were available for use at the end of the quarter, as charities warned their services were being stretched to the limit.

The data is contained in the Department of Housing’s local authority homeless performance reports for the first three months of 2023.

It was published as the department confirmed on Friday that a new peak figure of people homeless in Ireland had been reached, with 12,259 people in emergency accommodation in the last week of April. That number included 1,733 families and 3,594 children.

Homeless charities warned the figures were only going to get worse in the coming weeks.

A spokesman for Cork Simon said its beds were full “every night of the week” and the pressure being put on services at present was unprecedented.

“We’re looking at any spare capacity there might be in the system, most likely in hotels and the B&B sector,” he said. “There seems to be a slow but steady decline in Kerry which might explain that vacancy on the last day of the quarter.

There’s been a slow and steady increase in people turning to us for help since late last year. That hasn’t stopped.” 

The spokesman added there was a shortage of emergency beds across the system, and it is understood charities fear more presentations from adults and families made homeless due to notices to quit their tenancies.

In the South-West region, 35 new families presented as homeless in the first three months of 2023. There were 28 families who exited homelessness in the same quarter, meaning a small net increase in the region.

The number of rough sleepers was listed as 122, according to the figures.

With a capacity of 543 adult beds available for emergency accommodation in the South-West, 505 were occupied on the last day of March, meaning 38 beds were available.

Commercial hotels and B&Bs were being used to support the accommodation of 390 single adults and 86 families in the first three months of 2023 in Cork and Kerry.

NGO-operated temporary emergency accommodation, meanwhile, supported 324 single people and 33 families in this period.