Based in Waterford, Ann O’Leary is the Housing First Team Leader with South East Simon. Following the amalgamation of South East Simon and Cork Simon this year, Ann works closely with the Housing First team in Cork for the betterment of our services in Cork and Waterford.

“There’s somewhere for everybody.

My job is to find that little piece of the puzzle that’s missing from someone’s life. It doesn’t mean all the trauma is dealt with. But they’ve got comfort. They’ve got dignity. They’ve got a private space to deal with what’s happened in the past.

For a lot of our service users, Housing First can be a permanent stopping point where that continuous cycle of homelessness ends. I suppose we call it a sustained exit out of homelessness. We house people and our aim is that this is their forever home. We really do want them to success in their home and have dignity and peace.

It’s about sticking by people and about giving choice back to people. We don’t fix people; we help people to better their lives in whatever way they chose for us to help them to achieve that. And I think this is the lovely thing about working with Simon and the Housing First approach.”

Ann talks about choice and empowerment as key tools in supporting people to make the changes they are seeking ...