Minister for Housing Jan O’Sullivan officially opened the Midlands Simon Community’s first housing with support service, Sli Nua, in Co Westmeath today.
A range of dedicated supports are being provided to the seven formerly homeless people who have been accommodated in apartments in Athlone through Sli Nua.
Midlands Simon collaborated with the HSE, Athlone Town Council and Athlone Institute of Technology - -through an intern arrangement - to enable residents have their own home, dignity and privacy through the project.
Sli Nua is designed to assist the homeless in their transition back into permanent accommodation. The service is cost affective through the use of volunteers and elimination of emergency accommodation.
The Sli Nua project is the first Sli (Support to Live Independently) scheme in the region, according to chief executive of Midlands Simon Community, Tony O’Riordan.
The apartments-built during the boom but unsold, were leased under a ten year agreement with the developer at 20 per cent below the current market rental rate under the Sli scheme.
Minister O’Sullivan praised the efforts of midland volunteers and the various agencies involved in the project.
“What they are providing now is moving forward from emergency accommodation into long-term homes, but at the same time with support,” she remarked.
“It’s a very good model really of what we need in order to first of all to address emergency housing but probably as important, is to find a way to moving people on to secure accommodation.”
“This particular project I think is a very good model for how we can deal with what is a basic human need and a basic human right, which is the right to have your own home,” Minister O’Sullivan added.
Welcoming the service, Mayor of Athlone Town Council, Cllr Alan Shaw described visible side of homelessness, people sleeping rough, as the “extreme side.”
He said it was important to note that there are thousands of people around the state in emergency accommodation every night.
AIT graduate and Key Worker in Sli Nua, Ruth Keane outlined the ongoing supports on offer to the individuals using the service.
She recounted the story of one participant who said, “since moving to Sli Nua I have experienced independence for maybe the first time in my life...in my opinion they have saved my life.”
“The people that use our services did not chose a life of poverty or exclusion,” Mr O’Riordan said.
“People want to change their lives. We have had some residents in Sli Nua that were alone, that had no-one to support them. That at different stages of their lives they felt like giving up on themselves. For them now a new way exists, or a Sli Nua,” he remarked.