Mount Brown, Back Lane and Orchid House worked hard throughout the challenges that Covid-19 brought. These vital services, which are at the forefront of the temporary accommodation response in Dublin, played a key part in providing badly needed shelter for those with specific drug and alcohol vulnerabilities. Furthermore Orchid House went through a large scale renovation project in between lockdowns and the relaunch of the services further highlights how the physical environment plays a key factor in quality service delivery. Overall these three services supported 277 people (Back Lane 154 people, Orchid House 50 people & Mount Brown 73 people) and moved 34 people out of homelessness.

Suaimhneas provides accommodation based support for single women who have completed substance use rehabilitation programmes and worked with 11 women through 2020.

We also opened the Birch Haven Family Hub in Firhouse which will concentrate on supporting women coming out of substance use treatment and their children. We also maintained and expanded our Cosán Nua service now funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, supporting households in Direct Provision who have been granted their permission to remain to find their own home.

Depaul trains 10 service users and families and retrained 34 staff in the use of Naloxone as drug use in lockdown increases. Depaul Housing helped its first tenants move into their new homes as homeless figures in RoI drop under 10,000.

The Harm Reduction Floating Support service in Derry/L’Derry supports individuals with a history of drug and alcohol abuse to remain in their own homes. The service had to adapt to still work with people in their homes while following all the appropriate health practices during Covid-19. It was a particularly challenging time, making sure that every person had a robust set of wraparound services. This service worked with 45 people through 2020.