The Peter McVerry Trust, a charity supporting young homeless people,
expects to record an unprecedented 15 percent increase on service users
in 2012.The charity, which will mark its 30th anniversary in 2013, has been working continuously throughout the year to expand its services.
The CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, Pat Doyle, said “the total number of individuals who received support from our services in 2011 was 1,300 however, by October this year we had exceeded that figure”.
According to Mr Doyle, the charity “now expects to work with over 1,500 people by the end of 2012”.
Further pressure on services has also seen Merchants Quay Ireland officially launch its new Open Access Homeless and Drugs Centre this week.
The new centre has been operating from the Riverbank building since July and has seen increases in the numbers accessing the meals service rising from 5542 meals served in July to 7533 in October 2012, an increase of approximately 51 percent on the same time last year.
Speaking at the launch Tony Geoghegan, CEO of Merchants Quay Ireland, stated: “We at Merchants Quay Ireland are counting the social cost of the recession everyday as numbers coming to our new centre soar”.
“As the winter bites we expect to see more and more people come through our doors to get in off the streets for a few hours, to warm up, have a cup of tea and a bite to eat,” he said.
According to Dr Seán Healy, Director of Social Justice Ireland, the failure of the Government “to set a target to reduce the numbers of people with jobs who are living in poverty is a major disappointment”.
“There are over 700,000 people at risk of poverty and Government’s failure to set an ambitious target shows a profound failure of leadership,” Dr Healy said.
According to Social Justice Ireland, the latest data published by the Central Statistics Office shows the proportion of Ireland’s population at risk of poverty is now 15.8 pc, up from 14.1 pc in one year.