Another challenging year for Cork Simon
“I woke up with the rain. All wet. I said, no, no, I have to do something. I can’t end up like this.”
Those were the words of Sylwia who worked in Cork for 20 years before she became homeless. Her experiences and her struggle to secure accommodation as well as recalling the difference a home would make to her life are included in a Cork Simon report published today, Thursday.
She came to Cork when she was 24 after finishing a business management degree.
“And I was all excited about starting my adult life. And it was good in the beginning. I'm happy with my 20 years’ experience in the hospitality here. It is hard work,” she said.
She started by cleaning rooms and rising up to the management levels. Then the pandemic happened.
Following a breakdown in her relationship with her husband and after exhausting her savings on cheap hotels and hostels, Sylwia ended up sleeping rough.
She said the pandemic “brought a lot of change in my life, especially the breaking relationship with my husband. So that's how I started becoming a homeless person.
“In the beginning, I still had a little bit of money saved. So I was living in the cheap hotels or the hostels. And then finally, when the money finished, searching for a job, I couldn’t really imagine how can I be on the streets and work.
“Finally, I woke up with the rain. All wet. I said no, no, I have to do something. I can’t end up like this. I had to use the Simon services. And at least I could have a cup of coffee inside or some warm food,” she said.
Sylwia is continuously looking for a place to rent and while she said she is safe in Cork Simon, it is not ideal. She is trying to think positively and said permanent accommodation would give her independence. “That's what I need because I am counting on people at the moment. Independence is what everyone needs.”
Cork Simon today, Thursday, published its Annual Impact Report for 2023.
homeless charity reported another challenging year as it supported more people than ever before.
Describing 2023 as “a very tough year”, Cork Simon’s CEO Dermot Kavanagh said: “The number of people turning to us for help increased by 9% in just twelve months to 1,498 people. 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 increased capacity at its emergency accommodation by 17% to 75 people a night in 2023. The number of people its outreach team met sleeping rough increased by a third, as did the number of people long-term homeless – those stuck in emergency accommodation for over six months. The number of people depending each night on the Soup Run doubled.
Dermot Kavanagh said: “Responding to these challenges against the backdrop of addressing our 2022 deficit highlights the 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 €180k 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.”
Another new initiative Cork Simon established last year in response to changing needs was the introduction of a Hepatitis C Support Worker to help people across homeless services in the city access Hepatitis C screening and treatment.
Throughout 2023, Cork Simon supported 46 men and women to exit homelessness into independent and supported housing. By year’s end, the Community was supporting 254 formerly homeless people to maintain their tenancies and continue towards achieving their life goals.