Record 13,514 people homeless in November

Some 13,514 people were counted as homeless in November in the latest figures from the Department of Housing.

The number of children accessing emergency accommodation that month was 4,105.

The previous month, the total number of homeless people was 13,179.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One ahead of today’s announcement, Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy at homeless charity Focus Ireland, said if the number of homeless children exceeds 4,000 it would be “totally shocking”.

“It is not just that there are more children homeless, they are homeless for much longer,” Mr Allen said.

“So there has been an 80% increase in the number of families who were long-term homeless, that is an almost doubling of the number of families that are homeless for more than a year.”

In October, the total number of homeless people was 13,179, meaning an additional 335 people became homeless in November, in broad terms.

Dublin has the highest number of homeless adults – at 6,790, of whom almost two thirds (4,316) are single.

On top of the number of people in emergency accommodation, the rough sleeper count for winter 2023 showed 118 people sleeping on the streets in Dublin, an increase of 30% on the previous year.

Wayne Stanley, Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said:  ”This shocking level of homelessness documented in the figures released today must be placed into context.

“Each of the men, women, and 4,105 children that these figures represent are experiencing a preventable trauma.

“That level of suffering demands action. We know that the primary solution to homelessness is a home. Up to very recently, Governments have been heavily reliant on the private rental market to address social housing need.

“There are a multitude of reports that outline the difficulty of finding a home in the private rental market including our own Locked out of the Market report.

“This is no longer a viable answer to homelessness at the scale that we see today.”