More than 4,800 people accessed DePaul’s homeless services last year.
The organisation is due to take over 9 facilities currently run by the Society of St Vincent de Paul, including the 16 bed Monastery Hostel in Carlow.
In its annual report, the charity says that’s an increase of 11 percent on 2018.
There was also a 24 percent rise in the number of children it supported to just over 1,000.
DePaul CEO, David Carroll, says the health of those it helped during the year was particularly worrying noting “We dealt with over 250 incidences of suicidal ideation with about 120 of those involving self-harm and the prevalence of drugs & alcohol was also a concern for us with us administering the lifesaving drug Naloxone over 63 times, this is a drug that counteracts the effect of opiates”.
