Galway Simon sees 46% rise in demand for services
Galway Simon had the most challenging year in its 40-year history with the number of people accessing emergency accommodation in the west increasing by 46% in 2017.
With this trend continuing into 2018, new CEO Karen Golden warns that homelessness in Galway will get worse before it gets better.
She pointed out that the number of people in emergency accommodation has shot from 36 to 499 individuals and families over the past five years. Within two years – and without any major improvement in housing supply – that could rise to 1,600.
Galway Simon’s 2017 annual report found it helped prevent 402 households from becoming homeless – up from 219 the year before.
It worked with 642 households – including 335 completely new households. That number is up from 622 in 2016, which was a 70% increase on the previous year.
While rent pressure zones were introduced, these are not preventing people becoming homeless. The charity’s ‘Locked Out of the Market’ reports consistently showed that there were no properties available to rent in Galway within the Housing Assistance Payment limits (HAP).
“Social housing in Galway is not coming on stream fast enough for the demand from the local community. The Government’s social housing targets for Galway City and County are 931 units for 2018, with 73% of those to come from the private rental sector,” explained Ms Golden.
“However, the reality is that 93% of the units delivered so far this year are coming from the private rental sector. With rent increases in the city of 15.9% in the last year, this is not sustainable.
“Without the supply of social and affordable housing available that is needed for city and county, the harsh reality is that the crisis is going to get worse before it gets better. That is why at this critical time, Galway Simon Community are placing our focus on homelessness prevention; keeping people in the homes that they already have.”
The charity prevents homelessness by intervening to help maintain a current tenancy or by sourcing a new one which avoids the trauma – particularly for children – of having to relocate to B&Bs and hotels. It is makes economic sense as the nightly cost of temporary accommodation far exceeds private rent.
After two years of running a deficit budget due to the expansion of services, 2017 marked a turnaround in finances for Galway Simon due to a bequest received of €546,830.
Total expenditure was nearly €4.7 million – a 6% increase compared to the previous year, mainly due to increased wage costs arising from increased services.
Turnover in Simon charity shops remained stable at €475,000, their annual Sleep Out raised over €29,000. Statutory and grant income from the HSE, Galway City and County Councils and the child and family agency Túsla represented 55% of total income, a decline of 4% from the previous year.
Due to a change in the pay scale for social care organisations which are funded by the HSE, the new CEO has taken a pay cut. Bill Griffin received a gross salary of €89,183 last year before his retirement. His replacement is on a salary of over €75,000.
Looking ahead, Galway Simon plans to extend its Homelessness Prevention Services, Youth Service and Health and Well-being Team in addition to acquiring additional housing in order to prevent more adults and children becoming homeless.
Last year 35 people aged between 18 and 25 accessed the Youth Service and 12 of those accessed its designated youth accommodation.
Since the beginning of this year, Simon now offers pilot outreach services to people in the Loughrea and Tuam areas.
Addiction counsellors worked with over 100 individuals providing over 500 one-to-one sessions as well as running relapse prevention groups.
In total, 297 people volunteered with the organisation in 2017.