Number of people homeless rises for third month in a row

Homelessness charities have expressed concern that Ireland’s homelessness crisis will only worsen in the months to come.

The tent of a homeless person on Grafton Street in Dublin city centre (Niall Carson/PA)

By Dominic McGrath, PA

September 24 2021 02:36 PM

The number of people homeless in Ireland has risen for the third month in a row, as the latest figures show 8,212 adults and children without a home.

Data from the Department of Housing, published on Friday, recorded 6,023 adults as being homeless during August.

The figures show that 2,189 children are also homeless.

They also show that homelessness has increased from the 8,132 people counted as homeless by the Government in July 2021.

The rise has prompted warnings from homelessness charities, which have expressed concern that Ireland’s homeless crisis will only worsen in the months to come amid rising rents and an increasing number of evictions.

According to the data, published monthly by the Department of Housing, 953 families are homeless in Ireland.

More than 4,000 homeless adults are currently in Dublin.

Earlier this month, the Government said that it remained committed to ending homelessness in Ireland by 2030.

We are also deeply concerned that this month’s figure of 984 for young people (18 to 24 years old) homeless is the highest ever number on record.
— FocusIreland (@FocusIreland) September 24, 2021

The director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, Mike Allen, said on Friday that there was still little detail about how the Government planned to reach that target.

Mr Allen said that Focus Ireland is “committed to working in partnership with Government towards achieving the commitment to end homelessness and there has been considerable progress made over the last 18 months, particularly in reducing the number of families homeless”.

But he warned: “The Government has since decided to not continue many of the policies that were so effective in helping to cut the number of people homeless by 2000 since early 2020.

“We fear this will now leave many more families and individuals at risk of homelessness this winter as the housing crisis deepens.

“There is much more still to be done across these areas as the state must take a far stronger role if we are to fix our broken housing system.”

A total of 984 adults between the ages of 18-24 are currently homeless, according to the figures.

“We know that young people have carried much of the burden of the Covid crisis in many ways, and it is now clear, with the student accommodation crisis and the new record level of youth homelessness, that many young people have been pushed beyond the margins,” Mr Allen said.

Asked about Focus Ireland’s concerns about Government plans to tackle homelessness, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing said: “Housing for All includes 18 distinct actions tailored to eradicate homelessness.

“It commits to a ‘Housing Led’ approach to tackling homelessness for all groups. This approach acknowledges that the most effective way to address homelessness is to provide more homes.

“Eradicating homelessness by 2030 is an ambitious goal, and one that necessitates the coordinated actions of a wide variety of agencies and stakeholders. Minister Darragh O’Brien has already established a High Level Homelessness Taskforce to provide a forum for engagement with key organisations working to address homelessness,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that homelessness among young people is a “core concern” for that taskforce.