CORK SIMON COMMUNITY has warned that a recent incident of a woman sleeping under a plastic skip bag in Cork city is a “reflection of the reality of sleeping rough in the city”.

The woman, understood to be in her 30s, was found this week sleeping under the bag in a green area close to the city centre.

She is now in emergency accommodation.

Paul Sheehan, head of communications with Cork Simon Community, told RTÉ that incidents like these are “what it’s like for far too many people these days”.

“It’s somebody trying to find a bit of safety and respite from the elements, and even worse for a woman who’s sleeping rough, trying to find some way to conceal yourself so you’re not visible,” he added.

Sheehan estimated that around one in five people sleeping rough that the Cork Simon outreach team encountered last year were women.

“Anybody sleeping rough are vulnerable on the streets,” said Sheehan, “but women especially so

“Nobody should be left out on the streets in this day and age, and certainly not over the long winter months.

“We’ve already had several severe weather alerts and sleeping on the streets can take a significant toll on people’s health.”

Met Éireann today issued a weather advisory ahead of the first cold snap of the season next week.

Meanwhile, Sheehan said there “clearly isn’t enough emergency accommodation” for people in Cork city.

“In Cork, we’ve had well over 500 people a month staying in emergency accommodation across the city since October 2022,” said Sheehan.

He added that the Cork Simon outreach team met “record numbers of people sleeping rough” last year.

“Some of them were sleeping rough for one or two nights,” said Sheehan, “some of them for longer, and some for the very long term.”

He said the number of rough sleepers has “remained consistently high this year” and added: “Having somewhere safe and secure to live is a basic human need, and we don’t think anybody should be left out in this day and age.

“We’re consistently told that housing and homelessness is a top priority, but it’s clearly not.”

Housing has been one of the main issues raised during the general election campaign and when asked if there has been enough attention paid to rough sleepers, Sheehan said the “honest answer is no”.

“It’s fundamentally a housing issue, and the cost of housing is far too high,” said Sheehan.

“If you’re a single adult in an emergency shelter, you have no hope of getting out.”

He remarked that while the private rental sector would have been a “route out in the past”, he warned that it’s now “well beyond anybody’s reach”.

“And you’ll be waiting for affordable housing for a long time,” added Sheehan.

Sheehan said there is a “severe shortage of housing, but an even more severe shortage of one-bedroom housing”.

He called for a “concerted effort to get to grips with the problems in the housing system” and noted that the Housing Commission recently called for a “radical strategic reset of housing policy”.

Sheehan said he is “hopeful” that the incoming government “would take on board” the recent Housing Commission report, which identified “ineffective decision making and reactive policy making where risk aversion dominates” as the “core issues” in the housing crisis.