Tag Archives: Simon

THERE were 59 homeless adults in Clare during the week from May 23-29, according to figures from the Department of Housing.Across the Mid West region there were 71 families, with 135 children accessing emergency accommodation during the same week. Jackie Bonfield, Mid West Simon Community CEO said that the homeless situation is disimproving, and likely to continue to decline. “The numbers nationally are getting worse. The ban on evictions has been lifted, which absolutely isn’t helping the situation. There is still a shortage of accommodation, a shortage of properties to rent. “I don’t believe we have seen the wave yet from the increase in the cost of living, but it is going to come, I’d say over the next few months. “People are struggling to pay bills now and there’s only so long they can afford to keep paying the rent at the rate they were paying it, and trying to survive, with food and everything else increasing.” Support is …

THERE has been an increase in the number of adults accessing emergency accommodation in Clare in the past month. Department of Housing figures for the period September 21-27 show there were 67 adults in the county in emergency accommodation, up from 60 the previous month. The homelessness report also indicates a total of 67 dependents in emergency accommodation across the Clare-Limerick area. Chief Executive of Mid West Simon Jackie Bonfield said there are reasons to believe that homelessness will be an increasing problem in the coming months. “If there is one person homeless it is one person too many and we are expecting it to get worse because a lot of people will be in difficulty because of having lost their jobs and because of Covid. “There has been a stay on evictions but that doesn’t protect everybody. If somebody is part of a household and the family unit breaks down, it doesn’t protect the person who has to leave …

THERE were 10 more children homeless in the Mid-West in June, compared to May. The figures for “hidden homelessness”, however, where people are couch surfing with friends and family, could push the figures higher. Figures from the Department of Housing relating to the Mid-West show there were 112 dependents homeless during the week of June 19-25, compared to 102 from May 22-28. In total, it found that 317 adults accessed local authority-managed emergency accommodation during the period June 19-25, of which 39 were in Clare and 278 in Limerick. Of these adults, 42 are aged 18-24, 196 from 25-44, 72 from 45-64 and seven are over 65. About two-thirds were in supported temporary accommodation, including hostels, with on-site professional support. Another 82 were in private emergency accommodation, which may include hotels, B&Bs and other residential facilities. The figures compare poorly with June of 2016, when there were 18 homeless adults in Clare and just 19 dependents in the Mid-West. Tracey …

A TOTAL of 730 people, including 500 children, are regularly receiving supplies from the Mid West Simon food banks in Ennis and Kilrush, it has emerged. This figure is an increase of 180 people, compared to July 2016. Figures released by Mid West Simon this week gave a detailed breakdown of the amount of people who are depending on the charity to feed either themselves or, in many cases, entire families. In Ennis, 356 children are depending on food from the bank, which caters for 54 families, including 90 adult females and 26 adult males. The Ennis food bank caters for a total of 472 people, compared to 258 in Kilrush. The Kilrush figure includes 143 children, 58 men and 57 adult females. Tracey Reddy, client services manager with Mid West Simon, has told The Clare Champion that increases in rent is a contributing factor to food poverty in the county. “The number of people using food banks is increasing …

Mid West Simon will host its inaugural corporate sleep out at Thomond Park, Limerick on Saturday, November 12. The group is aiming to raise funds to support its work and it is also focusing on raising awareness of the homeless situation in the region. “While many of the statistics that are reported in the media are Dublin-centred, we have an equivalent problem in the Mid-West. As in the rest of the country, building in the Mid-West came to a complete standstill during the recession and we are now seeing the results, which is a dramatic shortage of affordable accommodation,” Mid West Simon general manager Jackie Bonfield said. In 2006, 93,419 houses were built nationally but by 2014, the number of new house builds had reduced to 11,016. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) notes Ireland will have to build 25,000 residential houses per year in order to cope with the housing crisis. “Consecutive governments have relied on the building …

The Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney has released further details of the first tranche of applications for GLAS, Ireland’s new agri-environment scheme, co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Minister Coveney welcomed the number of commonages that have come into GLAS – applications in respect of just under 2,700 commonages, or well over half of all commonages in the country, have been received. “This is a major step towards the establishment of greatly enhanced management regimes for these upland areas. Some 4,000 individual GLAS applications from commonage farmers were received, but the minister pointed out that another 5,000 commonage farmers are already in AEOS with time left to run on those agri-environment contracts. “These farmers are only likely to join GLAS when their AEOS contracts expire,” the minister said, adding that specific provision had been made to accept these farmers into the scheme in due course. This will be of particular interest to farmers in North and East …