The number of homeless people in the State has reached another record high and now stands at 15,915.
There were 10,957 adults in emergency accommodation and 4,958 children in 2,320 families, during the last full week of June, according to figures published by the Department of Housing on Friday.
This represents an increase on the record 15,747 people living in emergency accommodation a month earlier.
The numbers, counted during the week of June 23rd to 29th, do not include people sleeping rough, couch-surfing and in domestic violence refuges. Unaccommodated asylum seekers are also excluded from the total.
RM Block
In Dublin, where the crisis is most acute, there were 7,755 adults and 3,666 children in emergency accommodation.
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The figures also show the majority of adults in emergency accommodation are aged between 25 and 44, with 5,846 people in this age bracket.
The Salvation Army has warned that the childhoods of thousands of young people are being “suppressed” by the homeless crisis.
Erene Williamson, the charity’s homeless services Ireland lead, said: “Part of a normal childhood involves inviting friends to your home, play dates and sleepovers.
“But these things that so many of us take for granted are not enjoyed by children in emergency accommodation.”
Pat Dennigan, chief executive of Focus Ireland said: “We should always take time to remember that behind every single number is a man, woman or child suffering the trauma of losing their home.
“Homelessness hurts everyone and it hurts children the most. It is heartbreaking that nearly 5,000 children are having their childhoods stolen one day at a time. We need to end child homelessness. For good.”
The figure for homeless children, at 4,958, edged closer to the landmark of 5,000 which Minister for Housing James Browne highlighted earlier this month.
“I don’t want to see that threshold crossed, but it’s going to be very difficult to prevent crossing over that 5,000, considering how close we are,” he said. The previous month’s figures were 4,844.
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Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said Government failures were “normalising homelessness”.
“We need funding for vital homeless prevention schemes like tenant-in-situ restored and increased,” he said. “Without an emergency response from Government the homeless numbers will continue to rise with ever greater number of adults and children forced to live for years in emergency accommodation.”
Social Democrats housing spokesman Rory Hearne said the figures were “another shameful milestone and an indictment” of the Government.
“These numbers are the direct result of policy choices made by the Government,” he said. “This is what happens when you do not protect vulnerable renters, or prevent them from becoming homeless.”
Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said there was “no acceptable level of homelessness”.
“Under the current trajectory of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the trends are going in the wrong direction,” he said.
Tánaiste Simon Harris previously defended the Government’s record on homelessness, saying that while levels are “too high”, the key to tackling it was the “supply of a whole variety of homes, including social homes”.
“Housing can’t just be an emergency for the Minister for Housing, the Department of Housing or people in need of housing.
“It has to be an emergency for every part of the State” including the chief executives of local authorities and utilities such as Uisce Éireann and the ESB and “every county councillor who needs to realise their job isn’t to object to houses, but build houses”.
