March 2024

Home Truths author, Sophie Johnston.

"Landlord came to me said ‘your contract’s up’. It was hard to find somewhere. Nobody wants to take HAP. My mother said I could move home, so I said grand. But it just went downhill from there. I was 30 / 31. Fighting with my family. It was getting worse and worse and worse. Things just fell apart after that. I was out on the streets for one night. Ended up in here (Cork Simon emergency shelter). I’d never been in the homeless services before – I’ve worked for myself all my life. These kinda things, they soul destroy ya, the really do." - 'Brendan'.

“I left the family home just before Christmas. I’m 32. Me and my mum, we had a fallout. I’d been in the family home since God knows how long, but I was tossing and turning with social services and social workers and stuff like that, so that kinda played a big factor in my life really. There was no options there for me to get private renting, so I stayed at home. That was the only place I could think of – stick at home. And then when my son was born, I thought that would be a bit of a game changer, but two families kinda like collided and it didn’t end up well for me at all. I was just then told, you have to go, she has to go. It got too much for my mum. There was no other alternative. And so, here I am.” - 'Martin'.

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Cork Simon’s ‘Home Truths’ series aims to offer insights into different aspects and experiences of homelessness in the Southwest, drawing on publicly available data and supported by personal experiences of Cork Simon service users.