Galway’s homeless cannot take any more cuts – Simon

One of the city’s leading homeless charities has warned that any further cuts to its budget will impact on services and force some of the most vulnerable people in the West of Ireland onto the streets.

In its annual report for 2012, published this week, the Galway Simon Community has called on the Government to at least maintain funding at last year’s level after five years of cuts to services for the homeless.

“The cuts must end,” says Simon CEO Bill Griffin. “The homeless budget must at least be held at current levels if we are to continue to be able to support homeless people to make changes that allow them a quality of life that the rest of us take for granted as our right.

“The time for political leadership is now, the time to turn rhetoric into meaningful action is now, and the time to make a lasting difference to the lives of vulnerable people in our region is now.”

Mr Griffin said the Simon Community supported the Government plan to end homelessness by 2016, but felt that they could not continue to maintain services after experiencing cuts to their budget in each of the past five years.

He warned that people could remain “trapped” in emergency or temporary accommodation, or return to the homeless cycle, because a tenancy breaks down or health and social care supports were inadequate.

People needed affordable housing, health and social care supports, and adequate social welfare payments so that they were not left “chronically poor” in the long-term.

“The result of underfunding of the homeless budget is an increase in demand on other more expensive services in other parts of state provision. So from a human and financial perspective ensuring adequate provision makes sense,” he said.

Mr Griffin pointed out that the HSE Social Inclusion budget had been cut every year since 2009, with 18% of this funding having “disappeared”, while funding to local authorities under the Housing Act and social welfare payments have also been cut.

He said Simon had received “amazing support” from the public in the wake of annual budget cuts since 2008, but staff were well aware that people were dealing with the effects of recession across the board.

“If you have demand going up and resources going down, there has to be an impact on services at some stage,” he said. “People in homeless services have complex needs in a variety of areas that require a commitment by the State.

“We have done everything in our power to do more with less but we now fear that any new cuts will impact on frontline services. The cuts must end. The homeless budget must at least be held at current levels.”