Ireland’s oldest charity has reported “an alarming increase” in demand for its homelessness services.
Mendicity Ireland has been working for the poor in Dublin for over 200 years.
But this week they have revealed they are as swamped as they have ever been in their long and distinguished history.
The numbers coming to the charity looking for help with housing has gone up by 50% in just a year.
Mendicity provides daytime help for vulnerable homeless people who often have nowhere else to go when they are kicked out of hostels or emergency accommodation in the morning.
A census from the workers show that there are now 138 people a day availing of Mendicity’s services, up from 92 last year.
Other findings show that only 3% of the total number - four people - have access to a bed on a 24 hour basis.
39% of respondents have access to ‘one night only’ bookings in homeless accommodation services.
This means they do not know, from one day to the next, whether they will have a bed for the following night.
And people of 18 different nationalities are accessing the Mendicity Institution’s services this year - up from 13 different nationalities in 2018.
Louisa Santoro, CEO of the charity, said: “The Mendicity Institution plays a vital role in supporting homeless people in Dublin by providing crucial day-time services.
“Homelessness is a 24-hour problem, but many of the services currently in place operate only on the basis of providing overnight shelter.
“Then service-users are asked to leave in the early morning and, quite often, have nowhere to go but the streets.
“Homeless people need daytime supports and the Mendicity Institution provides that facility. “The census findings show the demand for our services is increasing substantially.
“Despite this, the Mendicity Institution does not receive any statutory funding to support our daytime service provision which is completely untenable.
“We need to see this situation rectified by the Government to enable us to manage the increased demand for our services.
“The fact that the numbers of people using our services daily has increased by 50% since this time last year underlines the scale of the homeless and housing crisis in our society.
“It also highlights the need for the Government to adopt a multifaceted approach to tackling homelessness.
“The solution does not just lie in just providing night-time accommodation, but also in recognising the importance of daytime services and integration and employment supports for homeless people.”
The Mendicity Institution is open 15 hours a day (8 am to 11 pm), which makes it the longest-opening day service for homeless people in Dublin.
The service is provided with the help of seven full-time and two part-time staff.
