LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep

THE NUMBER OF people living in emergency accommodation in August rose to 14,486.

10,067 adults and 4,419 children were in emergency accommodation last month, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing, 

In July, these figures stood at 10,028 adults and 4,401 children.

The Simon Community today noted that there has been an increase of 1,795 people in emergency accommodation since August 2023, a 14% rise in a year.

There’s been the same increase in the number of children living in emergency accommodation over the same period, with a 14% increase here equating to an additional 524 children. 

Wayne Stanley, Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said the “solutions are there but what we are missing is the investment in those solutions and the supply of homes that are required”.

He added: “In that context, the figures released today are an outrage and should be viewed in those terms.”

Referencing next week’s Budget, Stanley said: “A ‘giveaway’ or ‘election’ budget that does not have the investment to turn the corner on homelessness would be a shameful abdication of duty by Government.”

Focus Ireland has also called for “urgent government action on social housing allocation for the most vulnerable” and for “all political parties must put forward ambitious yet realistic proposals to meet the significant challenges ahead”.

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan has urged the Government to “adopt a policy that allocates a portion of new social housing specifically for families who have been homeless long-term”.

Elsewhere, Labour leader Ivana Bacik said a “majority of people entering homelessness are coming from the private rental sector” and that the government has “utterly failed to put protection of renters at the core of its housing policy”.

“The relentless insecurity faced by so many renters, and the constant fear of eviction, must come to an end,” said Bacik. 

She added: “This Government has proven itself incapable of tackling this crisis. We need a change of Government, one that will put the protection of renters and the provision of affordable, accessible housing at the heart of its programme.”

Meanwhile, Social Democrats’ housing spokesperson Cian O’Cllaghan said that Taoiseach Simon Harris “attempted to distract the public from his party’s catastrophic record on housing by playing the issues of homelessness and migration against one another”.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, the Taoiseach claimed that the record homeless numbers in Ireland are linked to migration and asylum seekers. 

“If the Taoiseach is struggling to see who is to blame, he could start by taking a look at his own party,” added O’Callaghan.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper