Day services provide a range of non-accommodation related support services for homeless people and for people at risk of homelessness. Most day services support homeless people in meeting their basic needs. They provide somewhere to spend time and socialise during the daytime, access to hot food, showers and laundry facilities. In addition, some day services provide additional supports to prevent homelessness or enable people exit homelessness such as structured housing and social welfare advice and support, and more specialist supports such as addiction, medical and mental health services. 

This report reviews the design, delivery, operation and funding of day services for homeless people in the Dublin Region and examines their role within the wider framework of homeless services in the City and their contribution to achieving the aims of policy on national and regional policy on homelessness. All day services for homeless people in Dublin are provided by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and the majority of these are funded entirely by charitable donations. While this report makes reference to the full range of these services, the focus of this review is primarily on day services which receive funding from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). 

The research for this report was completed prior to the emergence of the Covid 19 pandemic and therefore the very significant implications which this pandemic has had for services for homeless people were not examined in this review. However, insofar as is possible the conclusions and recommendations in the final chapter do endeavour to take account of the implications of Covid 19 for day services for homeless people.