Number of rough sleepers in Cork City has jumped by almost 40%

The number of people who turned to Cork Simon for help last year increased by 9% to nearly 1,500

Rough sleeping had all but been eliminated in Cork City before the economic crash in the late 2000s. Picture: PA

The number of rough sleepers and long-term homeless in Cork City has jumped by more than a third as the scale and complexity of the homeless crisis worsens.

Stark new figures from Cork Simon show that its outreach team met 577 men and women sleeping rough in 2023 — a 39% increase compared to 2022. They also met an average of 30 people sleeping rough every night — a staggering 135% increase on the previous year.

The charity increased capacity at its already stretched emergency shelter by 17% to accommodate 75 people a night and saw the number of people deemed long-term homeless, with stays of over six months at the shelter, increase by 34% to 67.

The figures are contained in Cork Simon’s annual impact report for 2023, published on Wednesday. It shows that it helped more people than ever before last year during what it described as a “tough and challenging year.”

Rough sleeping had all but been eliminated in Cork City before the economic crash in the late 2000s but the report shows the number of people who turned to Cork Simon for help last year increased by 9% to 1,498 people. Its soup run served 13,743 hot meals last year — a 102% increase.

“We met more people sleeping rough, we supported more people in our emergency accommodation, and we responded to a growing complexity of need,” Cork Simon CEO Dermot Kavanagh said.

“We’re meeting more people now who are being pushed into homelessness because they cannot find a place they can afford to live.

“We established a new homeless prevention service as a pilot last year to prevent people from ending up in emergency shelters or sleeping rough.

Cork Simon CEO Dermot Kavanagh: 'We’re meeting more people now who are being pushed into homelessness because they cannot find a place they can afford to live.' Picture: Clare Keogh

“In just nine months, the service prevented almost 60 people from taking up a much-needed emergency bed and becoming enmeshed in homeless services.

“We’ve now put the service on a more permanent footing.” 

Mr Kavanagh added that responding to the various challenges against the backdrop of addressing its 2022 deficit highlights the Simon community’s resilience and determination to be there for everyone pushed into homelessness.

“We managed to reduce our 2022 deficit by well over half a million euro to €180,000 and we’re working on breaking even by the end of this year, putting us in a stronger position to continue meeting the significant challenges ahead," he said.

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Despite the problems, there are positive signs, with a Hepatitis C support worker introduced last year to help people across homeless services access screening and treatment, while a generous donor funded a pilot homeless prevention service which in just nine months kept 60 people out of the emergency shelter. 

The charity also supported 46 people to exit homelessness into independent and supported housing, and was by December 31 last, supporting 254 formerly homeless people to maintain tenancies.

Its addiction treatment and aftercare programme supported 101 people — a 23% increase — while 221 people engaged with its employment and training programme.

“We had incredible support from our statutory funders throughout the year, especially Cork City Council and HSE,” Mr Kavanagh said.

“And at the heart of it all were our thousands of generous donors who continued to believe in us, believe in the people we’re supporting, believe in the life-changing, life-saving work of our volunteers and staff teams."