Tonight in Cork, more than 40 homeless people will sleep on the streets. They are the ones, says the Simon Community in the city, who have been passed over by the Celtic Tiger and for whom the past year has meant no improvement in personal circumstances.
In fact, according to Ms Patricia McAllister, director of Simon in Cork, if anything, things have got worse during the past 12 months. Last Christmas, when she spoke to Southern Report, there were roughly 400 homeless people in contact with the community on an annual basis. A year on, the figure is the same and it may be rising.
"We've been doing our best to cope but there hasn't been any real improvement. The situation has actually become a little worse. You couldn't say that the people who come to us for help and shelter have benefited to any extent from the so-called Celtic Tiger," she added.
The age profile of those sleeping rough in Cork suggests that predominantly, they are in the 35/46-year bracket, but there are notable exceptions. The youngest homeless person known to the Simon Community is a 12-year- old boy. He hasn't been seen on the streets for a while and his problems stem from family difficulties at home. He will stay at home while things are calm and then he is gone again to take his chances on the streets, according to Ms McAllister.
Another boy, aged 17 years, has also come to the attention of the community. On and off for the past three years, he has been found sleeping rough on the streets of Cork. His case, too, highlights the extremely vulnerable position in which young people may find themselves for an assortment of reasons.
One noticeable trend, Ms McAllister says, is that the mix of homeless includes more women than before. Predictably, this is related to domestic violence. Simon intervenes with emergency help when it can as well as referrals to State agencies.
As the nights grow colder, the queue grows longer for last- minute beds at the Simon Community's emergency facilities at Anderson's Quay in Cork. The cold weather shelter which opens each winter has just been made available again and will provide temporary shelter for 12 people officially, but more usually 18. Those who use the facility are driven in by the cold and rain. If all the beds are taken, they use mattresses and sleep on the floor.
The 12 beds are given out at midnight and are snapped up quickly each night. The unlucky ones, who must be turned away (up to 15 people every night) are provided with food and a blanket to join the other homeless in the nooks and doorways around the city, where they can be seen any morning in all weather conditions.
Their plight, in the second city of the Republic, which is planning to spend millions of pounds living up to its European City of Culture award for 2005, sits uneasily with the higher aspirations of a generally affluent population.
The McCreevy Budget, Ms McAllister said, has alarming implications for the Simon Community and other agencies trying to help people break out of the poverty trap and get their lives back together again. Under pressure from the construction industry, the Government moved last Wednesday to entice investors back to the property market. This will undoubtedly give a timely fillip to the building firms, but for Simon, it means increased competition between first-time house buyers and investors.
For those who can't afford to get on to the housing ladder, the result will be even more pressure on rented accommodation.
As things stand, Simon is already on the bottom rung of the ladder. "It is virtually impossible for us to place people in rented accommodation. There were 39 people queuing recently for one apartment, that's an indication of the kind of pressure there is, and when you come along and say you are on rent allowance, you find yourself very quickly at the bottom of the pile. It think this Budget is very alarming for the homeless," Ms McAllister added.
The Celtic Tiger impinged on the Simon Community in Cork in another, altogether unforeseen manner. Two years ago, the community could depend on a volunteer force of at least 16 people who would be available to offer their services free of charge. However, as the economy continued to boom, the volunteers, lured by high-paying jobs, began to leave one by one, and last year, Simon, already strapped for funds, had to employ temporary staff to fill the vacancies. And this happened when the number of homeless in Cork increased by 40 per cent over the same period.
"The Celtic Tiger practically wiped us out," Ms McAllister said of the experience. Last year, it cost more than £1 million to run the Cork Simon Community. It has been deficit budgeting most of the way and the provision of services has been made possible only by subventions of £537,000 through various agencies such as the Southern Health Board and Cork Corporation, as well as fund-raising which accounted for £412,800. Nevertheless, services are expanding, not contracting. The nightly soup run will be augmented by a second team.
A breakfast run, which will offer tea and washing facilities to the homeless, is being introduced, and next month, work will start on a day centre. Also next month, the refurbishment of four apartments will bring to 21 the number of properties used by Simon in the city to introduce people again to independent living.