Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, has announced that it worked with just over 2,400 women last year across its housing, homeless and addiction services. It comes as the charity has issued an appeal for the public to help a fundraising initiative, #HelpHerHome, aimed at funding specific supports for women impacted by homelessness.

Pat Doyle, CEO of the charity, said, “In 2020 we supported 2,452 women across Ireland in our services and through housing supports. The biggest area of support was in our housing services, with 741 women supported in 2020. The next area was homeless services, including our family hubs, while we also supported women across our prevention and addiction services.”

“Women in our services find themselves in need of homeless services for a range of reasons, from losing their rental accommodation, family breakdown, domestic violence, and sometimes due to addiction and mental health issues.”

Ahead of International Women’s Day on the 8th March, the charity has launched the #HelpHerHome fundraising appeal with the aim of strengthening existing supports for women in need of its help.

“We are working each and every day to achieve positive housing outcomes for everyone in our services. Homelessness is a very challenging place for people for a range of reasons and women can face greater difficulties and challenges than men. What our staff are working to do is to provide safe, high quality accommodation for women and children. Ultimately, what we want is to ensure that we can rapidly move people into housing so they can rebuild their lives, and work towards the next chapter once they have the stability of a home.”