Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, has announced it has helped over 1,200 people secure a home this year. The charity, which works right across Ireland, said that this year’s figure represents a 50% increase on 2019.
Pat Doyle, CEO of the charity said, “We are absolutely delighted to help over 1,200 people secure a home this year, an increase of 50% on 2019. We all know that this year has been an extremely challenging one for so many people in our society. Each and every time we can help someone get the keys to their own home is a privilege and offers us much needed hope and encouragement.”
“Over the course of the year we have worked relentlessly to identify, secure and support people into homes on a daily basis. Our staff have had a very difficult year on the frontline managing and responding to COVID-19 but we have never lost sight of our goal to secure as many homes as we can for those in need.”
The charity helped people find homes in over 20 local authority areas, with Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Kildare, Louth, Waterford, and Kerry being the areas with the highest number of people supported into housing.
“This year has been particularly good for Peter McVerry Trust as an approved housing body as we have significantly increased the amount of homes, and in particular one-bedroom homes, we are providing to people. That includes through programmes like Housing First, which supports people sleeping rough and long-term residents of homeless hostels to get their own place.”
“We have been able to dramatically increase progressions from our hostels with progressions up 40% on 2019, we have increased the amount of people we have housed coming to us from non-Peter McVerry Trust services and we have had a very positive year in helping people in Direct Provision to secure private rental accommodation.”
“There has been no doubt that as a result of COVID-19 that we have had more opportunities to secure rental properties and properties on long-term leases. We have a really good pipeline of projects for 2021 and we are continuing to see a steady flow of opportunities for us to appraise and secure, which ultimately means more homes for those in need.”
“The challenge now for 2021 is to keep up our work and maintain the level of homes we are able to secure for people in need. There are opportunities out there and it’s up to us to make them work.”
