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Roisin Fisher and her three-year-old daughter lived in a hotel room until the Limerick housing charity, Novas, rescued them from a homeless nightmare.
They found it difficult to wash up or celebrate a birthday in their hotel bunker, before their lives were transformed by charity.
The “kindness” the charity showed her kept her through the toughest times, said the 24-year-old from Clare. On March 27, she moved into a two-bedroom home, secured for her by Novas.
His desperate plea for a house to call his own was one of 5,263 cases Novas handled last year, the most people he has helped since it was formed nearly two decades ago.
For the second year in a row, the organization supported more than 1,000 children. It helped a total of 358 families in Cork, Limerick, Kerry, Clare, Tipperary and Dublin, providing some 13,000 meals to help the underserved through its outreach team.
Una Burns, the charity’s director of policy and communications, warned of the homeless problem across the region, saying there is a growing homeless problem in rural areas, particularly in the interior of Munster.
“For example, in West Cork, referrals for our leasing maintenance service increased by 405% in the last five years and in Tipperary we were only able to meet 14% of demand during 2019,” said Dr. Burns .
Beyond urban centers, the problem is widespread but “often hidden”.
From Bandon to Mizen Head, via the Beara Peninsula, Novas supported a “record number” of people.
“Homelessness in West Cork is a hidden problem,” he said, with “many people not counted in official statistics due to domestic violence, couch-surfing, poor housing, hospitalizations and direct provision.”
The majority (61%) of all who reported the service in 2019 were women.
Rising rents, a lack of accommodation and a growing number of properties moving into the short-term vacation rental market are influencing, according to Novas’ annual report.
People who “couch surf or live in precarious, unreliable and unsustainable accommodations” is a recurring problem.
In Limerick, a family support unit worked with 221 families who were homeless and living in emergency accommodation, or at risk of homelessness, while an after-hours service in the city received ‘850 submissions’ a year. past.
“There is an urgent need for additional one-bed units in the city, as single men traditionally spend extended periods in homeless housing,” said Dr. Burns.
Approximately “50% of all applications on the waiting list for social housing in the city are single adults.”
“We need smaller units,” Burns added.
The coronavirus pandemic has reduced services, including face-to-face meetings between customers and key workers.
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