Dr. Dermot Kavanagh:

I thank the committee for the invitation to present to it today. I am chief executive of Cork Simon Community and I am accompanied by my colleagues Kerry Brennan, director of services, and Paul Sheehan, head of campaigns and communications. Last year, Cork Simon Community supported just under 1,500 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Most of our services are geared towards those facing the greatest barriers to housing and social inclusion.

There has been some progress on homelessness. In the south west region, the number of exits from homeless services increased by 9% last year while the number of adults prevented from entering homelessness rose by 65% compared to 2022. Our south west region Housing First service, which we deliver in partnership with Focus Ireland, the city council and the HSE, currently provides homes for 81 people in the region with a housing retention rate approaching 90%. Without this service, an additional 81 emergency beds would without doubt be needed for these tenants.

Our rapid rehousing and tenancy sustainment teams support another 95 formerly homeless people in their own homes, most of whom were long-term homeless and have complex support needs. We have also established a pilot shelter diversion project, which in its first six months of operation has assisted 28 people to avoid stays in emergency accommodation. This has reduced rough sleeping by an average of five per night in Cork city. Our employment and training service continues to provide a pathway to education, training and employment for people experiencing homelessness. A total of 221 people were supported in 2023 with 48 now in work.

There is increased pressure on services. Notwithstanding what I have just said, at both national and regional level, the overall situation is even more stark than it was at the time the committee's original report was published. The number of people in homeless emergency accommodation across the country has increased from 8,060 in March 2021 to 13,531 currently - an increase of 58%. In the south west region, the number has gone up from 499 to 767, which is an increase of 54%.

In Cork Simon, we are busier than ever. Last year, there were on average 75 people per night in our shelter and nightlight emergency accommodation services compared to 64 the previous year. A total of 540 people availed of our emergency accommodation in 2023. The average stay in 2023 was 51 nights per person compared to 44 in 2022. The longer people stay in emergency accommodation, the fewer beds are available for persons who are newly homeless. People who are long-term homeless stayed an average of 227 nights each and accounted for 56% of bed nights. If all the long-term homeless people were housed tomorrow, it would free up 42 beds, which would be more than sufficient to end the need to sleep rough in Cork city.

Rough sleeping in Cork city has also increased markedly. Cork City Council’s housing progress report for December 2023 shows an 82% rise in the number of people noted as sleeping rough compared to one year earlier and indeed Cork Simon’s outreach team met an average of 15 people bedded down on our streets each night in 2023 compared to just six the previous year.

The complexity of need is greater than ever. We saw 70 overdoses in 2023 compared to 52 the previous year - up 35% - and an increase of one quarter in the number of incidents relating to medical emergencies, overdoses and self-harm increase. The HSE in Cork has been proactive in ensuring methadone is easily available for people experiencing homelessness. It has also played an excellent role in coordinating the citywide response to the ongoing issue of nitazine-related overdoses and is supporting a pilot project relating to hepatitis C treatment. Notwithstanding all that, 17 people availing of our services died in 2023. Such deaths are often related to drugs, alcohol or chronic ill health and this is linked in term to the experience of trauma. Not surprisingly, the average age of death was 12 years older for those now living in their own home with ongoing support than for those in emergency accommodation or on the streets.

The increased service pressures have been accompanied by increased financial pressures and a recruitment and retention crisis. We were very grateful to receive additional support from the local authorities and the HSE last year and we very much welcome the current review of section 10 funding as there remains an urgent need to address what has been an ever-growing gap between costs of services and the statutory funding for such critical services. We would achieve nothing without our very committed and skilled staff team. In recent times, cost-of-living pressures have meant that many have left to take up better paid roles in the statutory sector and elsewhere. The recent WRC agreement aimed at restoring the link between statutory sector pay and pay in the voluntary sector is welcome but poses significant challenges for organisations like ours where statutory funding makes up just over half of our total income.

Partnership is essential to progress. We engage with the local authorities and the HSE in the search to find solutions and new approaches. The clear commitment of officials in these statutory bodies to addressing this growing crisis is a source of encouragement for the future.

Regarding recommendations for Housing First, we believe two-bed accommodation should be allowed in situations where no one-bed units are available. With rents in Cork now more than 20% higher than they were in Dublin when the 50% homeless HAP uplift was put in place in 2016, it is now essential this level of uplift is made available nationwide. With regard to HIQA, we believe that good regulation and an effective inspections regime are essential. However, service providers must be resourced to meet the standards rightly demanded by the State. We agree that more needs to be done to ensure an adequate supply of emergency accommodation but, again, the key to reducing demand is to provide housing with support as necessary, especially for people who are long-term homeless.

In addition to the above, we would welcome the following measures: the increased allocation of social housing to the long-term homeless; dedicated housing with support for homeless people leaving residential addiction treatment; further development of incentives and initiatives to address the vacancy rate; more measures to reduce institutional-style living arrangements, including the provision of shared housing initiatives as an alternative to shelter and bed and breakfast-style accommodation; implementation of the Simon homeless prevention Bill; and innovations in prevention, including the wider roll-out of shelter-based diversion services across the country.