Homeless people to benefit from Winter Woollies appeal

A WINTER woollies appeal for new hats, scarves, gloves and socks has proven to be another triumph, with over 1,500 items donated to people experiencing homelessness, as figures remain at record levels.

In recent years, Marion King has run the winter woollies appeal as a way of providing some comfort to people that have fallen on hard times.

This is the first year that Tower Credit Union has run the appeal, since merging with Greenhills and District Credit Union.

Members of the Clondalkin, Citywest, Greenhills, Neilstown and Celbridge branches of the credit union, and the surrounding communities contributed to the cause in aid of the Simon Community.

“People always get involved in our winter woollies appeal, it’s great to see the community really coming together because we all just pulled in the same direction on this,” Marion King, branch supervisor in Tower Credit Union, tells The Echo.

“The support from everyone was tremendous. We even had some people hand knitting scarves to donate, people were so generous.”

At the launch, in January, they had a target of 500 items but after three months of collecting, some 1,500 items were handed over to the homeless charity.

For Marion, the appeal is something that she feels is a necessity and is something that she hopes will become an annual thing in Tower Credit Union.

“Homeless people don’t live in seasons, it is winter all year round,” Marion says.

“It’s freezing all year for people experiencing homelessness.

“Our aim was to gather scarves, gloves, socks, and hats, and give them to people who were homeless.

“There was a man sitting outside our Clondalkin branch in Tower Credit Union, he told me that he just fell on hard times after Christmas, he wasn’t looking for anything, he just felt comfortable sitting there.

“I asked him if he’d take a hat and scarf and he did. This is right on all our doorsteps, and that really hits home for people.”

With the number of people falling into homelessness at record highs, the cost-of-living crisis and housing crisis continues to affect more people.

11,742 people accessed emergency homeless accommodation in February, with data showing 8,368 adults and 3,373 were recorded as homeless.

This represents a decrease, of 12 people, on the 11,754 people recorded as being homeless the month prior, which was the highest ever recorded.

Statistics for March are yet to be released, and figures do not incorporate people living in refuges or rough sleepers. Charities such as the Simon Community called for the ban on evictions to remain in place in a bid to curb more people from experiencing homelessness.

A temporary prohibition on evictions was introduced last October as part of the Government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis, but this countermeasure expired at the end of March.

This has led to concerns for another potential rise in homeless figures, with figures release by the Residential Tencancies Board (RTB) show that there were 4,329 noticed to quit issued in the last three months of 2022.

According to the RTB, 2,630 of the notices to quit will take effect between April, May and June of 2023.

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