THE NUMBER OF people sleeping rough in the Dublin area this spring fell by 9% compared to counts conducted last year, according the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). 

The survey found that 83 people were sleeping rough in Dublin during the week of 6 to 12 March of this year compared to 91 people last spring and winter. 

The Official Spring 2023 Count of people sleeping rough in the Dublin Region was arranged by the DRHE and conducted by the Dublin Simon Community Outreach Team alongside members of the Peter McVerry Trust Housing First Intake Team. Gardaí also provided assistance in compiling the numbers. 

75 of the 83 people found to be sleeping rough had previously been assessed by the DRHE for homeless services.

According to DRHE, the majority of those included in the count were aged between 26 and 45 years old and almost half of the total number of people sleeping rough were doing so in tents (48%). 

The organisation also found that 36 of the 83 people (43%) had accessed emergency accommodation during the week of the count ad that the majority (97%) had accessed Emergency Accommodation at some stage before the count week. 

In statement, the DRHE said: “The number of people rough sleeping in the Dublin Region changes from night to night. While there is a core group who regularly sleep rough, and who may or may not engage with services, there is a larger group that move between rough sleeping, accessing emergency accommodation, sleeping in insecure accommodation, and staying with family or friends. Others may engage in rough sleeping for a very brief transitional period.”

The Peter McVerry Trust released a statement welcoming the reduction in the number of people sleeping rough.  

CEO Pat Doyle said, “It’s positive to see any decrease in the number of people sleeping rough on our streets. Although the decline is in the context of the growing number of people entering homelessness nationally, it is a success to see the most vulnerable in our society – entrenched rough sleepers – moving on into their own home.”

Counts of people sleeping rough are specific to those people found sleeping on the streets and do not reflect the full extent of homelessness more generally. 

Other methods of measuring homelessness levels include the monthly homelessness reports issued by the Department of Housing, which detail the number of people accessing emergency accommodation. The last figures showed that there were 8,323 people were seeking shelter, a reduction of 12 individuals compared to the month before. 

A criticism of these figures has been that they do not track where people end up when they no longer avail of emergency accommodation services, and that the two numbers (rough sleeping and emergency accommodation) are not collated. 

One such critic of the way in which these figures are discussed and published is Louisa Santoro of Mendicity, a homeless charity based in Dublin, who spoke to The Journal about the Department of Housing’s most recent report. 

“At the moment,” she said, “it says that they’re not using emergency accommodation. That’s because they could be sleeping rough or they could be dead. 

“Where are they? If you’re not using emergency accommodation anymore it doesn’t mean you’ve gone to live on a farm and it’s all happily ever after. You could be not using emergency accommodation because you’re sleeping rough or it could be that you’re not using emergency accommodation because you died.

“And I’m not saying that they are or they aren’t, I don’t know. But all that says is that there are 12 people no longer using emergency accommodation. We are imposing on that statistic that they have gone onto something better, but there’s actually no hard information that would purport that.

“I would like to see those figures analysed properly.”

Reacting to the report, CEO of Dublin Simon Community Catherine Kenny said the reduction was a testament to the cooperation between the Dublin Simon Outreach team and DRHE – but added that the number of people sleeping out on the city’s streets remains “still far too high”.

Kenny said: “Nobody should have to sleep rough, and our outreach team will continue to engage with those who remain to provide housing options, referral to critical treatment services, address barriers to accepting accommodation, and advocate on their behalf with partners across the sector.

“Furthermore, while rough sleeping is declining, the number of people in emergency accommodation continues to climb.

“People are also spending far longer in emergency accommodation because there are no social or affordable homes available for them. Sheltered accommodation is safer than rough sleeping, but nowhere is safer than inside your own front door.”

She added that people concerned about someone’s wellbeing can contact the Dublin Outreach team which are on the street from 7am – 1am via the Dublin Rough Sleeper app.

Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton