If you or someone you know is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, please contact our Emergency Shelter on: 021 4278 728

 

Our Night Light emergency accommodation service was put in place at the start of Winter 2017 in response to a growing need for emergency accommodation here in Cork.

This additional emergency accommodation consists of mattresses on the floor of our Day Service on Anderson's Quay. While not ideal, it offers people a better alternative to sleeping rough on the streets. Because our Day Service is in constant use throughout the day and early evening, these extra emergency spaces do not become available until 11.00pm each evening and have to be removed again at 7.30am the following morning.

Originally established in November 2017 as part of Cork City's Winter Initiative for people sleeping rough, the service was due to end in March 2018. However, given the growing need for emergency accommodation here in Cork at the time, we kept the service open with ongoing support from Cork City Council. We have had to temporarily reduce capacity due to Covid-19 to keep everyone as safe and protected as possible.

389 men and women used our Night Light emergency accommodation service last year.

Covid-19

People staying at our Night Light service - and our Emergency Shelter, are among the most marginalised, vulnerable and excluded people in Cork. As such, the Covid-19 pandemic posed a very high risk to their health, safety and wellbeing.

We moved quickly to alert, inform and train our staff and volunteers to address the risks. We immediately introduced essential measures such as social distancing, use of Personal Protective Equipment, hand sanitising and additional daily cleaning.

We worked to make sure everyone using our Night Light was constantly reminded of the importance of hand and respiratory hygiene, and the need for social distancing. All of these measures remain in place.

See how Covid-19 has impacted every aspect of our work, and the men and women depending on our services.