The organisation was founded by a group of Trinity and UCD students in 1969, who began by providing much-needed soup and sandwiches to people who were sleeping rough in Dublin city centre. The Simon Communities in Ireland marked 50 years of working with homeless people in 2019, during which time the eight independent Simon Communities have grown to respond to local needs as they arise.
Simon can now be found in every county in Ireland and continues to play an important role as it has always done in identifying new needs and in developing innovative and cost-effective ways of dealing with existing needs.
Simon provides a range of effective services throughout Ireland embracing a housing led approach these include:
- Housing provision, tenancy sustainment and settlement services, housing advice and information services helping people to make the move out of homelessness and working with households at risk;
- Specialist health and treatment services addressing some of the other issues that may be experienced which may have contributed to people becoming homeless in the first place or may be a consequence of their experience of homelessness;
- Emergency accommodation and support providing people with a place of welcome, warmth and safety; Soup runs and rough sleeper teams who are often the first point of contact for people sleeping rough.
Number of paid employees:
1-5 employees
Current board size:
6
Annual turnover:
€500,000 - €1,000,000
Not-for-Profit focus:
Homelessness
Not-for-Profit structure:
Company Limited by Guarantee
