The number of homeless people in the State has climbed to a record high, with 15,286 people in emergency accommodation at the end of last month – an increase of close to 500 on the previous month’s figure, according to the latest Department of Housing data.
The “staggering increase” over a four week period to the end of January saw almost 100 additional children in over 70 families enter emergency accommodation, the figures show.
The numbers were published as the Minister for Housing James Browne rowed back on a key State commitment to end homelessness by 2030, which was contained in the Housing for All strategy document published in 2021.
According to the numbers – which are published on the last Friday of every month – there were 15,286 people in emergency accommodation, including 4,603 children in 2,164 families over the seven days up to January 26th.
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A month earlier, the number was 14,864, with 4,510 children in 2,092 families in emergency accommodation.
The numbers do not include people sleeping rough, couch-surfing and in domestic violence refuges. Unaccommodated asylum seekers are also excluded from the total.
In Dublin, where the homelessness crisis is most acute, there were 10,912 people, including 3,415 children in 1,507 families, in emergency accommodation.
The chief executive of Focus Ireland, Pat Dennigan, said the latest figures represent a significant – but not unexpected –setback following the positive decline in family homelessness before Christmas.
“With recent troubling world events, it is understandable to feel a sense of helplessness. However, as a nation and society, Ireland has the control to significantly change homelessness for the better,” Mr Dennigan said.
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Dublin Simon said the Government lacked a comprehensive plan to reduce the numbers and said the crisis was “deepening, yet thousands of people remain trapped in emergency accommodation with no clear pathway to a home”.
Its chief executive, Catherine Kenny, said the homelessness crisis was “not an inevitability – it is a direct result of political choices.
“What people need are able pathways out of homelessness – homes they can afford, security they can rely on and policies that prioritise long-term solutions. People need hope and security, not continued scarcity, unaffordability and instability," she said.
Speaking at a sod-turning event at a Land Development Agency (LDA) site in Clongriffin, north Dublin, the Minister said that while his aim to was “get homeless figures down as quickly as possible”, there “won’t be a specific timeline in relation to it”.
An updated Housing for All strategy is being worked on and will address the issue, Mr Browne said.
He added that he had met various homelessness organisations in recent weeks, including the Simon Community, Focus Ireland and Threshold because “it’s so important to those families to have a home and, in particular, for children, to have that sense of safety and security”.
The Minister said, however, that “supply is the only real solution to ending homelessness”.
“What I want to do is maximise the situation where it’s build, build, build. That is what will ultimately end homelessness.”
Speaking at the same event, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the State needed far more houses – “even more than the targets that are included in the Housing for All strategy”.
He said everyone agreed that about 50,000 houses need to be built each year, adding: “There needs to be far more focus on ‘the how’ of doing that.”
The LDA purchased the Clongriffin site from Nama in December 2023. An initial construction phase will deliver 408 social and cost rental apartments, but there is potential for 2,000 homes.
