The housing crisis in Cork is causing serious difficulties for agencies such as the Simon Community seeking to offer shelter to homeless people in the city, where, according to the latest re port from the community, homelessness is a growing problem.
At the presentation of the annual report yesterday, the Simon director, Ms Patricia McAllister, said the Simon Emergency Shelter in Cork admitted 789 people, of whom 232 were first-time users, last year. The shelter offers short-term and crisis accommodation to the increasing number of homeless people in the city.
In the foreword to this year's report, she said: "During the year, it became evident that the city's housing crisis was having an effect on the community's efforts to move people into accommodation. Where previously people were being placed in albeit substandard private rented sector accommodation, in the later months of 1998 even this was becoming more difficult.
"The private rented sector was being occupied by people who were unable to get into the housing market due to the inflated house prices. Homeless people were being excluded, with less accommodation available to them. The situation was serious. People were being asked to leave the shelter with no arrangement for alternative accommodation. We were in effect rationing beds.
"For this reason, the community reviewed the shelter policy and aimed to prioritise people in most need - people who were long-term homeless or sleeping rough, those who needed additional support, such as those with alcohol or mental health problems - the people for whom Simon was set up.
"This report profiles people in contact with Cork Simon. It highlights that homelessness in Cork is growing. The number of younger people under 25 has increased and there is an urgent need to address the issues related to homelessness, health needs, supported housing, street drinking, lack of day care facilities, and, most urgently, decent, affordable accommodation," Ms McAllister said.
The report concludes that many homeless people in Cork are unable to sustain tenancies without support. The age profile of those seeking help from Simon over the past year shows a growing problem with young people. The majority of people in contact with the agency are between 26 and 35 years of age.
"It is not acceptable that these people should be trapped in a cycle of poverty and homelessness . . . The health needs justify our campaign for a specific GP service for homeless people. They need access to healthcare and the continuity of care such a service would provide."
The report recommends that the powers of the homeless forum be expanded similar to the Dublin homeless initiative, that supported housing schemes be developed in Cork with the provision of specific medical care for the homeless, and that more statutory resources be available to groups dealing with homelessness.
It further suggests that specific services, such as outreach alcohol workers and counsellors, and provision for detoxification facilities, be developed to support the disproportionate number of homeless men and women with alcohol problems.