As we find ourselves in the third National Lockdown St Petrocs will be continuing to remain fully open and operational, as we did during the previous two lockdowns, and we will continue to do so as we navigate this ongoing pandemic.

We are responding to the latest lockdown and working tirelessly to support our clients and to reduce the impact the virus is having. All the things we’re now used to, PPE, social distancing etc are being employed to keep people as safe as we can.

Francios Voges, Director of Residential Services said “As we enter a new lockdown, our attention must turn to the continued wellbeing of residents in our supported accommodation. We have to balance staff rotas to ensure that the risks of Covid transmission are kept to an absolute minimum to ensure staff safety, and that the quality of support offered to clients is maintained. We will be speaking to each of our 139 residents every day to ensure that not only are their immediate needs being met, but that their progress through to their own housing, training, employment and future success in life is maintained. We have to make sure that residents’ mental health is looked after too, as lockdown can have a significant impact on peoples’ mental wellbeing. We do have the advantage now though, of having some experience to draw on from last year, and although Covid numbers in the community seem higher now than they were then, our services will continue to deliver.”

Being homeless is challenging at the best of times, but rough sleepers have faced even more adversity since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown. Our non-residential services are busy getting as many people off the streets as possible as we run a geographically dispersed programme of winter services this year.

During the past nine months we have adapted our services and resource centres and put measures in place to ensure our clients’ essential needs are met. This included extending our opening hours to allow safe, socially distanced access to essentials such as food, showers, advice, medical care, laundry washing, phone charging, and more. Resettlement work to find people accommodation has also continued throughout this time and so far we have supported 238 positive housing outcomes for rough sleepers since the start of the first Lockdown in March 2020.

We are extremely grateful for the support of the community at this time. Thanks to the support we have received during this time we have been able to stay completely open and operational throughout the ongoing pandemic, and we hope that you can stay safe at this difficult time.