IF CUTBACKS are necessary in the next budget they must not affect vulnerable groups such as the homeless, the Simon Communities of Ireland warned yesterday.
Its chief executive Patrick Burke said homeless services needed more support.
"The most vulnerable need to be protected at times like this. So if there needs to be cuts they need to find it in other areas and not in areas where the most vulnerable are being served."
The Government has promised to eradicate street homelessness by 2010 and Mr Burke said that it was still possible to achieve this.
"But we are nervous about that. We're most certainly very nervous that there has been no increased funding in the last number of years and there's no commitment to it that we can see," he said
"So at minimum we would need to keep the funding that's already allocated to homeless services but in order to achieve their target they will most certainly have to put more in."
He was speaking after he announced plans for the first Simon Week which will be held from September 29th to October 5th. Events will include a national radio and billboard campaign, a briefing day for politicians and a promotion to encourage more volunteers to work with Simon.
Dublin band, The Coronas, will act as ambassadors for the week. Its lead singer, Danny O'Reilly, said nobody should experience homelessness in this day and age.
"If we keep thinking that homelessness is inevitable, or that it's the individual's personal problem, nothing's going to change. By supporting Simon Week, we hope to raise awareness and understanding of homelessness."
The week is supported by EBS and its chief executive Fergus Murphy will take part in a Simon soup run during the week.
The nightly soup run travels around Dublin offering food and drink to people sleeping on the streets.
Mr Burke said he hoped to address certain misconceptions during Simon Week. "For example, many people think that homelessness is a personal failure of the individual when, in actuality, it is caused by a combination of societal factors and a lack of adequate supports."
Research has found that up to 70 per cent of people who experience homelessness have also experienced mental illness.
Simon's eight communities around the State deal with about 5,000 people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. "And that's just one voluntary organisation," he said.
