Scale of homelessness crisis is far worse than the official data suggests

One of the four key objectives of the Government’s housing plan, Housing for All, launched in September 2021 is to “eradicate homelessness”. Yet last week’s homelessness figures show that after two years of implementing the plan, the number of people homeless in the State has increased by 51 per cent to 12,827 people, while the number of children homeless with their families has increased by 67 per cent (from 2,344 to 3,904 children). Ireland now has the highest levels of homelessness on record.

There are a number of factors that underlay the systemic State failure to prevent and reduce homelessness. At its core, is ‘no-fault’ evictions in the private rental sector, rising rents, the shift to a privatised social housing model (reliance on the private rental sector and parallel neglect of public housing delivery). Other factors have increased demand for housing – the population increase, providing protection for refugees and a growing international workforce. But these are not the fundamental causes of homelessness, or the wider hidden homeless crisis.

Insufficient attention is given to understanding the true scale of homelessness and hidden homelessness. A preventive approach has been largely absent in an Irish housing policy that has an overly narrow definition of homelessness – it only counts those in emergency accommodation – and therefore is focused on providing more emergency accommodation rather than structural responses (reducing the risk of homelessness).

Research undertaken by this writer and Kenneth McSweeney finds that even the record homelessness figures are a considerable underestimate of the real scale of the issue, due to the failure to consider and measure many people in hidden homelessness. The experience and trauma of homelessness is much more than just being in emergency accommodation. It includes multiple forms of housing insecurity and ‘home-loss’.

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Using the framework of international best practice for defining homelessness, the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion (ETHOS), we estimate 23, 881 individuals in situations of homelessness, almost double those in monthly statistics. This includes people excluded from Ireland’s narrow measurement of homelessness such as those in womens’ shelters/domestic violence refuges; people in state institutions and care due to leave with no housing to go to (care leavers, prisons); families in own-door short term accommodation; long-term homeless accommodation without tenancies; people in severe housing insecurity (staying temporarily with friends or family, couch surfing); those in Direct Provision with status and Travellers in substandard accommodation. Countries such as Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway use this wider definition of homelessness.

[ Homeless people often ‘fall through cracks’ of health system ]

We estimate a further 51,061 living in housing exclusion or insecure and inadequate housing. These include, for example, people with disabilities in inappropriate accommodation, and adult children stuck living in the parental home. It also includes those who have received a notice to quit but are overholding, largely because they have nowhere to go once evicted. They are at severe risk of homelessness but are not included in official statistics. There were 25,122 notices to quit issued to private renters in just the fifteen months from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023. In total, then, we estimate 74,942 individuals in homelessness and housing exclusion. This is a likely underestimate of the scale of hidden homelessness. The Simon Communities found that 190,000 people had “stayed temporarily with another household because they don’t have a regular address of their own” in the previous 12 months. We also don’t measure how many of the 522,486 adults aged 18 years and over living with their parents are insecure and potentially at risk of homelessness.

Another area of hidden homelessness we identified is people who are homeless, but not recognised as such by the local authority and therefore they are not counted. Those providing legal support to people in homelessness report that local authorities are refusing to recognise people who are in situations of hidden homelessness such as couch-surfing, citing the 1988 Housing Act that they “can reasonably occupy” the accommodation.

We also found that in the months following the lifting of the eviction ban, people (including families with children) contacted local authority homeless services but were told that there is no (or only inappropriate) emergency accommodation available. Such people are also not counted as homeless, even though they are being evicted from their home with nowhere to go. They then enter situations of hidden homelessness – sleeping in tents, cars, couch-surfing, even emigrating. In contrast, in Northern Ireland, they measure all those presenting as homeless and provide them with advice and support.

The monthly homelessness figures are the principal focus in public and policy debate, but they hide the full scale of the trauma of homelessness being experienced, particularly by children. Our research reveals, for the first time, the shocking numbers of children who have experienced the trauma of homelessness. Today, there are 3,904 children homeless nationally. But a much higher number of children have been homeless for some period of time in recent years. We estimate that approximately 17,000 children have experienced the trauma of homelessness in emergency accommodation in Ireland since 2016. In Dublin, 12,804 children with their 6,759 families spent some time in emergency accommodation between 2016 to 2023.

We also find a dramatic increase in the length of time families and children are being left in homelessness. 63 per cent of families (2,533 children) were living in emergency accommodation for longer than six months; 42 per cent (1,690 children) were there longer than one year, while 16 per cent (664 children) were there longer than two years, while the number of families in emergency accommodation longer than six months grew by 80 per cent from July 2022 to September 2023 (669 to 1,206 families).

Children are particularly affected by homelessness, as they experience the trauma and stress at key stages in their development. There should be no children becoming homeless in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.

[ Number of homes available to rent under HAP scheme limits at lowest level on record ]

There is a failure to align policy and practice with Ireland’s commitments to measure and end homelessness under the Lisbon Declaration. The Government should implement the ETHOS framework to measure and respond adequately to those in hidden homelessness, housing exclusion and potential homelessness. A broader interpretation of the concept of not being “reasonably able to occupy” in the Housing Act is also required – along with counting and responding to, everyone who presents as homeless.

The unacceptably large number of people being made homeless is a social catastrophe which is causing huge and deep personal human trauma to each individual experiencing it. Accurate data and measurement is required if policy is to be effective. We must properly measure homelessness in order to understand its scale, who is at risk, and respond adequately to end it.

Dr Rory Hearne is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social Studies Maynooth University and author of Gaffs. The research for Ireland’s Hidden Homelessness Crisis, authored by Dr Rory Hearne and Kenneth McSweeney, was funded under the Irish Research Council New Foundations Awards