Offaly SVP flooded with calls from people unable to meet costs

OFFALY St Vincent de Paul is reporting being inundated with calls from stressed and upset people who are unable to meet the living costs being placed upon them.

As the housing crisis and cost of living crisis continue to get worse the charity says it is extremely busy throughout Ireland, including in Offaly and North Tipperary.

During August the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul’s regional offices took, on average, 30 calls an hour from parents unable to meet the full cost of sending their children back to school.

The calls come as the overall demand for SVP’s services is up almost 25% in Offaly compared to last year.

When contacting SVP for help, parents and caregivers were doing their best to get their children prepared for the new school year but with so much pressure on household budgets, meeting the full cost was impossible.

Almost half of the requests came from one parent families, reflecting the very high levels of poverty experienced among these families.

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Marian Carter, President of Offaly St Vincent de Paul, told the Midland Tribune that during 2022 the number of people ringing the charity has increased significantly.

Marian has been a member of the Birr branch for many years. There are 16 members running the Ozanam facility in Birr. Each night they collect food, which is given for free, from Tesco’s. This food includes fruit and veg, tea, coffee, cereal, jams, bread, pasta, bolognese sauce.

Some of the food given to the charity is provided by the Department of Social Protection. The Department provides a selection of meat to the charity.

Food is handed out to the public by the St Vincent de Paul branches in Offaly regardless of people’s  circumstances, and with no questions asked. The Birr branch hands out food four days a week, Tuesday to Friday,10.30am to 1pm.

The charity is very discreet and sensitive to people’s concerns. The helpline is (085) 8804028.

Marian told the Tribune that there has never been such a high demand on the charity’s services.

“In the last year there has been a 25% increase in the demand for food and fuel.

“We are also helping people getting accommodation and in meeting their needs to pursue third level education courses.

“We recently helped someone who is paying €850 a month for a bed-sit. Basically this is just one room and nothing else. You share a toilet with other people in the building. It’s a shockingly high price for just one small room.

“People are coming to Ozanam House in Birr for help who we never saw before. There are queues each day outside the House of people queuing for food. We have never been as busy in all my many years in the charity. We are all volunteers.

“Donations of clothes and furniture to Ozanam House are also down. Perhaps people are less inclined to give away their clothes and furniture during difficult times. They are holding onto items that they would previously have willingly given to us.”

She said SVP is very worried what the winter will bring and that it could get grimmer.

SVP uses three Collection Points at three warehouses in Ireland. These warehouses are run by the Department of Social Protection. Birr SVP uses the Collection Point in Oranmore, Galway.

“We drive our van there once a month,” remarked Marian, “to pick up food as part of the government’s Feed Programme. Normally one visit to the Collection Point is sufficient, but last month we had to go there twice. We have never had to do that before. The demand has never been as high.”

Birr SVP also hands out vouchers to people with food intolerance problems or to mothers seeking items for their babies.
Last month Birr SVP raised €23,000 in its annual Golf Classic. “Nearly all of that money has been spent already,” said Marian.

“It’s gone towards paying room or apartment deposits for students embarking on their third level courses but unable to meet the accommodation costs.

“Some students can’t get accommodation because Ukrainian refugees are in the accommodation. Meanwhile some of the refugees have been moved to tents which is simply not right or satisfactory.”

Meanwhile, it seems that Birr Outdoor Education Centre has transitioned from being a stop-gap, short-term measure for handling the refugees to a more permanent footing. For a number of months groups of 50 Ukrainian refugees were arriving at Birr OEC and moving on after a couple of weeks. However, the most recent group arrived at the Centre on June the 27th and is still there.

The homeless situation is also worsening in Birr District with a number of people “couch surfing” in friends’ and relatives’ homes. But in Birr Town the problem has gone beyond couch surfing. The Tribune has learned that three homeless people have been sleeping rough for some weeks in the town’s parks.

The Offaly SVP President pointed out that if people feel sensitive about using the service provided by the charity in their hometown, then they can go to other SVP outlets in other towns where they wouldn’t be as well known. There are SVP outlets in Roscrea and Portumna, for example.

Offaly SVP is part of SVP’s Mid West Region, whose headquarters is in Limerick. The head office says it’s bracing itself for a very bad, a very busy winter.

SVP also gives out boxes of school stationery each year, one box per child, whether in primary or secondary school. Boxes contain pens, colouring pencils, pencils, calculators, Lever Arch files, hardbook books, copy books. They are given out free. In the last few weeks Ozanam House in Birr has given out 680 stationery boxes. It also supplied 460 boxes to Clara SVP; and 320 boxes to the Ferbane / Cloghan conference; which is a total of 1460 boxes.

“A RED C poll was conducted on behalf of SVP,” continued Marian, “and it found that nationwide the number of people struggling financially has doubled since before the pandemic. This includes midland counties such as Offaly and Tipperary. The number of people struggling financially in the country has gone up from 9% to 18%.

“Our report is entitled “The Cost of Surviving” and it details the actions people are taking to survive and meet their rising living costs.”

Nationwide, nearly 40% of people have cut back on essential heating and electricity use and nearly 20% have cut back on other essentials such as food. About 50% of unemployed people have cut back on essential heating and electricity. Almost half of single parents have cut back on essential heating and electricity and about 40% have cut back on other essentials like food. A quarter of renters in both private accommodation and local authority housing have cut back on essentials like food in response to rising energy prices and and 60% of renters in local authority housing have cut back on essential heating and electricity.

St Vincent de Paul points out that a huge number of people are worried or quite worried about their ability to meet their household energy costs while a quarter are worried about their ability to meet their housing costs (rent or mortgage). “Among those single parents 66% are worried about their ability to meet their household energy costs in the next six months. For renters the worry is particularly stark with over half worried about their ability to pay their rent, 9% already behind on their rent and 29% worried about facing eviction in the next six months. 44% of single parents are worried about their ability to meet their housing costs.”

SVP say it’s critical that the Government benchmark social welfare payments and minimum wages to an adequate level and in line with living costs.

The emergency measures which St Vincent de Paul is calling for include:
- Frontload available resources to households on fixed and low incomes through increases in core welfare payments with extra support for families with children including those in receipt of the Working Family Payment.- Extend the Fuel Allowance season by four weeks and keep it under review.- Establish a discretionary fund to support households with extra living expenses and utility debts/costs. This could be facilitated through the CWO service and by relaxing the rules for Exceptional Needs Payments.- Establish a rent arrears fund between DSP and DHPLG to prevent a rise in homelessness.- Increase the limits for the Housing Assistance Payment and Rent Supplement to end the practice of top-ups.- Continue to monitor utility disconnection data and strengthen consumer protection measures to prevent a significant increase in disconnections.
Meanwhile, the government released press releases last week to national and local media stating that its Housing for All programme is working.

One year on from its introduction, the Government said its “ambitious” Housing for All plan, had made progress in delivering housing for Offaly, Tipperary and the wider midlands.

The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, said: “When we launched Housing for All our aim was that everyone should have access to a home to purchase or rent at an affordable price, built to a high standard and in the right place. We backed that with a guaranteed over €4 billion a year in housing investment and a series of actions to deliver 300,000 new homes by 2030, including 90,000 social homes and 54,000 affordable homes. While there’s a lot of work still to do, we can see already, after the first 12 months that the plan is working in Offaly and across the country.”

Commenting on the role of local authorities in delivering housing in Offaly, the Minister of State for Planning and Local Government, Peter Burke TD, said:

“Offaly County Council is playing a central role in delivering housing in the county. Over the past 12 months the Government has provided resources and funding to the council to help it deliver for people in Offaly. I’ve recently issued guidelines to Offaly County Council on the making of their county development plan to ensure it takes into account projected housing need so that sufficient new homes can be built in key areas of housing demand. We have also streamlined the processes for the procurement of social housing.”

The Minister for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD, commented on progress made in putting sustainability at the heart of housing:

“Compact growth has to be at the heart of housing provision and planning. Higher population densities will have upshots such as minimal transport demand and shorter travel distances. Since Housing for All was launched, we have made progress in developing legislation to introduce Land Value Sharing and a new concept, Urban Development Zones. These are key reforms in land management and planning, which will result in compact growth and curbs on land speculation.”