Posts

On Friday 29th of November, Minister of State with special responsibility for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, officially turned the sod on NOVAS’ Brother Russell House redevelopment. The service, which has been providing supported accommodation for homeless men for 35 years is being demolished and replaced with a purpose-built facility. Dormitory-style accommodation will be replaced by single ensuite rooms which, CEO Michael Goulding believes is ‘the least that someone who has been living there for years or even decades deserves.’

The service will increase capacity from 26 to 33, and will provide long-term supported housing for men and women. Until now the service was exclusively for homeless men. In 2012, some 55% of clients accessing NOVAS’ accommodation services were women, so opening this service to women will meet increasing demand.

At the sod turning, Minister O’Sullivan noted the ‘tremendous’ work being done by NOVAS in tackling the issue of homelessness in Limerick. She stated that NOVAS ‘made a huge difference, in terms of having facilities and services for people who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness.’

The new service will be developed to the tune of €4.4m euros, which was provided by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government and the JP McManus Charitable Foundation. Without the hughly generous donation by the foundation of €1.75m euros this development would be an unrealised dream. The service will be finished in the latter months of 2014 and will greatly enhance the quality of life of those who avail of it.

Later that afternoon the Minister travelled to The Greenhills Hotel to officially launch NOVAS’ 2012 Annual Report. The report highlighted some startling finding in terms of the numbers accessing its services and the young age profile of its clients.

In 2012, NOVAS provided support for 1,500 families, adults and children. This was an increase of 25% from the previous year. The age profile of the clients also declined with the number of clients accessing accommodation services aged between 18 and 21 years rising by 63% since 2010, meaning that people are becoming trapped in the cycle of homelessness at a very young age. This increase coincided with a reduced social welfare payment to this cohort of €100 per week, making it very difficult for such adults, without family support, to live independently. The report also found that there was an increase in referrals to its Intensive Family Support Service by 236% during 2012, highlighting the deepening impact of the recession on more and more struggling families.

NOVAS CEO, Michael Goulding called on government to stop the cuts to homeless services and to revert the reduced payment to young adults without family support as it is having the unintended consequence of forcing people into or inhibiting their exit from homeless accommodation.