New record high reached with almost 16,000 people homeless in Ireland

Homelessness has reached another record high in Ireland as the number of people using emergency accommodation rose to 15,915.

This is up from 15,747 people recorded in the last official Department of Housing tally in May, 4,844 of whom were children.

Figures published on Friday show 10,957 adults and 4,958 children accessed emergency accommodation in the last week of June.

The statistics do not include people sleeping rough, those that may be couch-surfing or homeless in hospitals or prisons, or those in asylum seeker centres or domestic violence shelters.

The number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been steadily increasing for years.

It surpassed 10,000 people for the first time in 2019 and again in February 2020, before falling to 8,000 in mid-2021.

An eviction ban was imposed from November 2022 until the end of March 2023 in an attempt to control rising homeless numbers.

Chief executive of Dublin Simon Community Catherine Kenny said the “alarm bells have been ringing for far too long”.

“We’re in the thick of a national emergency and still we wait for the government to take decisive action. Of utmost concern is the rate of homelessness in the capital compared to the rest of the country.

“Since January, homelessness in Dublin has increased at a rate four times greater than outside the capital.

“A lack of delivery on social housing targets and resources to the housing sector in a growing capital comes with a price. The most vulnerable people are paying that price.

“With well over 11,000 stuck in emergency accommodation in Dublin, at what point will the Government decide to do what is necessary to address this great injustice?”

Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne said the figures represented “another month, another failure” for the government.

Mr Hearne said: “It is deeply, deeply shameful that we’re seeing almost 5,000 children in this country being stuck in emergency accommodation.”

He said the “damage” to children who stay in emergency accommodation for lengthy periods was well documented and accused the government of not prioritising the issue.

He also questioned why there was a delay in the figures being published on Friday just before 3pm.

The homeless data for the previous month is always published on the last Friday of the month at 2pm.

“We’ve seen them cook the figures in terms of the 40,000 homes they claimed (would be built) last year,” he said.

“I just think it can’t be a coincidence that today we see this delay in the release of the figures and we’re almost at 5,000 figures in terms of children being homeless.”

Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin said the government’s failures were “normalising homelessness”.

He noted the “collapse” in the number of tenant in situ placements that prevented homelessness in the second quarter of this year compared with last year.

He said the fall in 227 preventions was a “direct consequence” of the decision to “slash funding” for what he said was a “vital homeless prevention scheme”.

“Until they listen to what we’re saying, to what frontline homeless service providers are saying, then we’re going to be out here every single month for the time ahead commenting on the continued failure of this government,” he said.

Labour TD Conor Sheehan also called for an increase in funding for the tenant in situ scheme.

“Today’s figures show that we are on the cusp of 5,000 children living in homelessness. It must be addressed.

“The programme for government commits to increasing supply to get people out of homelessness, yet here we are over six months since its publication and it feels like we are going backwards. When will Fine Gael and Fianna Fail take action?”

The Department of Housing has been contacted for comment.