Kilkenny’s Good Shepherd Centre tonight will open a new Cold Weather Initiative for those sleeping rough in Co Tipperary.
The objective is to offer accommodation and services to 11 people in Clonmel.
Noel Sherry says it’s in addition to existing supports there, telling KCLR News; “The gap it’s potentially filling is it’s providing emergency beds which provides people the opportunity to get off the streets and be somewhere safe and hopefully stablise matters in their own lives that will help them progress through health, addiction and accommodation services to find a permanent exit from homelessness”.
As Christmas approaches he’s reminding that such times can be extra weighty on those who may be separated from their families and friendships, noting; “It is actually a very difficult time, it’s a very quiet time, people become very quiet in themselves because they’re pondering in that sense of hopelessness, and it’s the very time when all of us want to be with our families and friends and for people in emergency accommodation it’s just a further reminder of how abnormal it is to be homeless”.
