The Minister for Health yesterday urged businesses in Cork to play a part in tackling the problem of homelessness in the city by pledging support for a new £5 million fundraising drive by the Cork Simon Community.
Mr Martin made the call at the publication of a new Cork Simon brochure seeking corporate backing to cover its expenditure, which currently totals £1 million annually on services for the homeless in Cork.
He said the Cork Simon Corporate-Business Group was aiming to involve members of the business community to help either on an on-going basis or by way of a once-off corporate grant.
According to the Cork Simon director, Ms Patricia McAllister, the number of homeless people in the city has increased dramatically in the past year, with figures for 1999 expected to indicate a significant worsening of the problem.
In 1998 there were 789 people staying in Simon shelters - last year the figure rose by around 40 per cent to 1,094 - while the number of people turned away went up from 338 to 957, almost a threefold increase.
"The problem is that we're just not moving people on. We can't get people into the private rented sector because the prices there have just gone so high that people on welfare can't pay the sort of rents being sought." Ms McAllister said.
The near-trebling in the number of refusals by Cork Simon came despite increasing bed spaces and the opening of a temporary crisis shelter. She also pointed out that some 20 per cent of Simon residents were under 25.
"While the Celtic Tiger has benefited many, there has been a major decline in the availability of affordable accommodation nationally and we're seeing the effects of that very clearly here in Cork," Ms McAllister said.
It cost around £1 million a year to run Cork Simon, she said, and the corporate-business group scheme was part of a £5 million drive to fund Simon's provision of emergency shelter, soup run and settlement services in the city.
According to the Cork Simon programme consultant, Mr Seamus O'Leary, a number of firms have pledged support for the scheme.