A target of £1 million from donations and fund-raising income needs to be reached this year to allow Focus Ireland, the voluntary housing agency, to meet the running costs of working to combat homelessness.
At the publication of the 1999 annual report, Mr Declan Jones, chief executive of Focus Ireland, said that as the organisation expanded so did its fund-raising target, "to allow Focus Ireland to meet the running costs of our services, housing and research departments as well as ensuring the future of further new developments in our work to combat homelessness in Ireland".
In the report, the president of Focus Ireland, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy, said the sad fact was that the need for its services had increased over the years. "Demand is now at a level that was unthinkable 15 years ago when we first opened our doors," she said. "When we started out, homelessness was a problem associated mainly with middle-aged men. Now it is a family problem, and children are the fastest-growing section of the homeless population, the majority of whom are hidden away in hostels and B & Bs," Sister Stanislaus said.
The new homeless were ordinary people. They were not addicts or people suffering from psychiatric illness. Families that were self-reliant were being pushed into homelessness because of a lack of affordable or social housing. They were the victims of the economic prosperity and the terrible housing crisis in this country, she stated.
The annual report showed the agency's total income for 1999 was £3,904,653, of which £2,752,655 was from Revenue-based grants. The £861,389 in donations and fund-raising was an increase of 4 per cent on the previous year.
The rest of the income came from rents and charges totalling £218,210 charged to residents at the agency's housing developments in Dublin, Limerick and Waterford, £44,538 came from sales at its restaurants and other income totalled £27,861.
Focus Ireland's total expenditure was £3,846,421, which covered housing, services, research, administration and fund-raising costs, and also took into account depreciation and audit fees.