Significant progress on tackling homelessness in Cork will be undone unless a proposed new strategy on the problem is adequately funded, the Simon Community has warned.
With an increased number of homeless people availing of health, accommodation, addiction and other services in the city, the organisation has heralded as a "success" an unprecedented inter-agency plan now approaching the end of its third and final year.
But, says Mr Aaron O'Connell, assistant director of Cork Simon Community, "it's vital to keep the momentum going. Sufficient effort has to be behind the production of a new three-year strategy, and that strategy has to be properly resourced.
"We are hearing everywhere there are difficulties with budgets. But this is an issue that has been under-resourced for 30 years. We can only maintain the success to date if the quality remains in the services provided."
Cork's partnership approach to homelessness has been cited as a model for other cities in the Republic. Its 2001-03 strategy - drawn up in accordance with a Government initiative on homelessness that was launched in May 2000 - brought together agencies including the Southern Health Board (SHB), Cork City Council and charities headed by Simon, St Vincent de Paul and Good Shepherd Services.
"It was very challenging for a lot of people. But quite a remarkable amount of work was done," says Mr O'Connell.
Apart from an increased supply in emergency and step-down beds, the strategy has delivered what the health board describes as "the country's first designated multi-disciplinary team" to address the needs of homeless people.
"We bucked the trend in relation to a series of things," says Mr Tom Ryan, project manager for homeless services with the SHB. "Homeless people had a problem accessing services. So we customised a service for them."
Funding under the strategy allowed Simon to reopen its day-care centre at Anderson's Quay, where clients can make appointments with a designated GP or consultant psychiatrist.
Other members of the health board's team are two mental health nurses, a public health nurse, a general nurse, a health promotion officer, an addiction councillor and four designated welfare officers.
The SHB estimates about €2.7 million has been spent on homeless services in Cork in the past three years, including €1.5 million to pay for in-house shelter staff - a notoriously burdensome cost for voluntary groups.
A further benefit is the increased co-operation between agencies. Local activists contrast their good relations with the city council to those in Dublin where the local authority is criminalising begging despite objections from groups working with the homeless. "What we've shown is the partnership approach can work," says Mr O'Connell.
"We now have a system in place where if someone becomes homeless we can offer a continuum of services from an emergency team to long-term support.
"I think we have been a model. But we have got to pick it up. The strategy did not achieve all it set out to do, and looking at the next three years we have to make up for that shortfall and continue to improve the quality of service."
He estimates 150 extra beds need to be sourced for emergency accommodation, noting that people attending the city's "cold weather shelter" this Christmas continue to need housing during the rest of the year.
An increasing number of people are also presenting themselves as homeless. Says Mr Ryan: "We are not sure whether they are new people or existing people who have come forward because services are there."
The SHB, which plans to publish the new three-year strategy for next January, estimates there are 400 homeless people in Cork city and county.
