Over 3,500 people supported by homeless charity last year

They saw a huge increase from the previous year.

One Irish homeless charity has revealed that they helped more than 3,500 people last year across the country. DePaul Ireland has said that 3,542 people availed themselves of the charity's services, including 410 homeless families. The charity offers assistance in homeless prevention, high support accommodation, health, rehabilitation and housing. DePaul revealed that they helped 772 children in homelessness, according to their annual report for 2020, as well as noting a huge increase in the amount of people who are now moved into permanent accommodation. 554 people were reported to have moved into housing during 2020, a 40% increase from the previous year. DePaul also reported that they had added five extra services and supplied 240 extra beds in their shielding unit for those who were most at risk of contracting Covid-19 within the homeless population when the pandemic began. They said that due to this, they "successfully managed and supported 67.6% of shielding bed capacity in Dublin during the pandemic." CEO of DePaul, David Carroll said: "As a society, we were all faced with the exceptional challenges brought on by Covid-19 but, despite this, Depaul's quick response to the crisis enabled us to protect our service users who were most vulnerable to exposure to the virus." The charity has also set up DePaul Housing, an approved housing body that has secured 11 properties, homed five service users in long term housing and have started developing another 20 units. They also carried out work with people living in Direct Provision alongside Cosán Nua, giving support to 246 people, and helping move 196 people into communities across the country.