Post-covid inflation also triggered a cost-of-living crisis which continues to impact low-income people and families, many of whom turned to homeless prevention services and relied on eviction bans to keep them in their homes throughout the year.

In early Summer, Ireland broke grim new ground with the highest number of people ever recorded in emergency accommodation, an upwards trajectory which continued to climb into 2023.

At a local level, 2022 also saw the succession of Sam McGuinness by new CEO Catherine Kenny on October 1st.  Dublin Simon Community was transformed under Sam’s 19 years of service, and we are delighted that after an extensive recruitment process, a worthy successor emerged from within our own ranks, something we see as a tribute to the talent that exists within the organisation.  

To echo Catherine’s sentiments, amid great hardship, we must not allow it to cloud our vision of where we are and where we plan to go.

In the face of mounting difficulty, we continued to prevent and end homelessness for individuals and families every day in 2022 across Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Cavan and Monaghan.  

1,011 people living in our long-term accommodation felt the relief and security of having a home. 967 people were supported by our settlement teams into a safe and secure home of their own. 934 people’s physical and mental wellbeing was improved by our Clinical & Therapeutic Services – an impact we hope to enhance significantly in the advent of our 100-bed facility at Usher’s Island in 2024.  

The profound impact of our services on each and every person they support cannot be understated, and on behalf of myself and The Board, I would like to personally thank all our staff, who continued to provide vital frontline support throughout the pandemic; our volunteers, who helped to sustain many of our frontline services like daily breakfast and nightly soup runs; and of course, our donors and patrons, who have stood by us throughout these incredibly challenging times.  

Together, we look forward to ending homelessness for many more in the year ahead.  

Thank you. 

Clients and residents in recovery from addiction struggled with a sense of standstill, while our Support to Live Independently service experienced a decline in cases due to the lack of available move-on properties. 

As more and more people are pushed into homelessness for economic reasons, we continued to address this chronic shortage through our role as an Approved Housing Body, providing long-term, independent forever homes to 715 people in 2022. This number has been growing year-on-year as we continue to focus on this area of need with the support of our donors and funders. 

While the delivery of accessible independent homes is a cornerstone in ending homelessness, so too is the provision of supported homes for people whose level of independent living skills poses a risk of homelessness. During 2022, our medium and high support housing services provided forever homes to 192 people where staff provided one-to-one support to help each resident reach their personal goals. 

In this vein, our Clinical, Therapeutic and Client Development services continued to work with our clients addressing physical, mental health or social inclusion needs which acted as barriers to exiting homelessness, while eagerly anticipating the launch of our 100-bed facility at Usher’s Island in 2024. 

While the challenge of this crisis looms large, I hope the following report accurately illustrates the life-changing impact our services are having at a local everyday level. This impact would not be possible without our funders, donors, partners, and of course volunteers, staff and clients, all of whom I would like to thank wholeheartedly. 

We cannot end the homelessness crisis alone, but with your support, we will continue to chip away at it, bit by bit, ending homelessness for individuals and families every single day. 

Thank you for helping to make that possible.

Catherine Kenny