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DATA ON HOMELESSNESS in Ireland is difficult to collate – at least right now.
Cohesive systems were only introduced in the past few years. Regions now report back to the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government each quarter with specific figures, but only since the start of this year.
This is connected to the Pathway Support and Accommodation Support (PASS) bed management system, which allows for information on rough sleepers and those in emergency or temporary accommodation to be tracked in much more detail.
Each region has now submitted reports for the first two quarters of this year. By the end of this year, a detailed picture will begin to emerge.
Sketchy details
Before this system, information on homelessness was sketchy, especially when it came to the number of people sleeping rough.
However, Ireland is not alone in this. The European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) has looked at these issues across the Europe, noting that it varies significantly from country to country.
Policy Coordinator Ruth Owen said that it’s important to carry out surveys regularly to correctly gauge the extent of homelessness.
“Scandinavian countries have well-established traditions of collecting data using fairly comprehensive and regular surveys,” she said.
“Once you build up that record over time, it becomes very important for future policy.”
So what information do we have in Ireland right now?
In 2011, the CSO incorporated homelessness into the Census for the first time, and issued a special report the following year. It is understood that the same information will be collected for the next Census.
From this we get a sense of the gender split…
…. and also the age demographic. The highest band for women is 25-29, while for men it is 45-49.
While some counties, like Wexford, have been keeping count for more than a decade now, other counties, like Westmeath, have no set records prior to 2013 on how many people were sleeping rough.
Outside of urban hubs, there are few obvious recorded rough sleepers (as in, those out on the street). When there are extremely isolated cases, frequently this involves someone who has been repeatedly offered services and accommodation, but has turned them down (this also pose a problem – there is currently no way of classing someone as intentionally homeless under Irish law).
When someone suddenly becomes homeless and ends up on the street, they will often not be counted in a rough sleeper count, and could be quickly provided with temporary accommodation.
Calculating the number of hidden homeless, those sleeping in a car, couch surfing, or even pitching a tent in a field somewhere, is harder to quantify.
TheJournal.ie has called around all councils, and got this rough tally for the amount of people sleeping rough in each county:
Click here to view a larger version.
For purpose of action plans on homeless, the country has been divided in to a number of regions. As part of quarterly reports, each region details how many people are homeless in the country. These figures relate to roughly mid-April:
Click here to view a larger version.
Many people who do present as homeless and require some form of emergency accommodation are often quickly catered for, meaning that few will end up sleeping rough.
That is assuming there are no issues involving drugs or alcohol.
The Department has started releasing figures each month that gives a county-by-county breakdown of this side of the homelessness issue.
These provide the number of people staying in Temporary Emergency Accommodation (hostel accommodation with low or minimal support), Supported Temporary Accommodation (hostel accommodation with onsite support from e.g., Focus Ireland, Simon, Crosscare), and Private Emergency Accommodation (this includes accommodation rented directly from landlords, B&Bs and hotels).
In June, there were 2,385 people classed as ‘homeless’ between 16 and 22 June this year, and using some form of the above accommodation.
When looking at the number of people in this accommodation as a percentage of the country’s total population, the cities filter to the top, but also the areas of Longford, Sligo, and Westmeath.
In Wexford, there were 32 people in emergency accommodation in June.
Click here to view a larger version.
Click here to view a larger version.
Click here to view a larger version.
In some areas they’re at breaking point:
Click here to view a larger version. The Q1 data for Dublin was estimated at between 98 and 99% occupancy.
Finding the number of people presenting to services as homeless is another way of quantifying the problem.
However, muddling the figures could be cases of people who are at risk of homelessness but manage through their own accord to find suitable housing, or may later be able to return to their home.
Here’s the average for the number of people presenting as homeless each day in each of the 10 regions in Q2 of this year.
Click here to view a larger version.
The “why” part of this question is more difficult to pin down. One regional group, Mid West, gives an interesting breakdown of the reasons why people are becoming homeless.
It shows that even within the region, there isn’t one main cause of homelessness.
Where people head to next can also vary…
(Pic: Andrew Bennett via Flickr/Creative Commons)
*In some cases, data for the West region has been excluded as reports were submitted in a format that differed from the set form submitted by other regions, and so was either not comparable or was incomplete.
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Any statistics other than Limk Clare & Tipp? Galway appear to keep no records at all ?
That’s because Galway can’t tell the difference between its crusty population and it’s homeless one !
It’s funny because it’s true.
Bunch of English hippies over for “The Culture”.
Disgraceful comment
I wonder how many non nationals are homeless. I live in Dublin and while I see many irish I have yet to see any non nationals sleeping rough. Am I alone in this or am I just missing them
And before anyone starts calling me a racist I’m
Just a nationalist who is genuinely curious?
Why don’t you try to find out first? That way, if it’s an issue, you can raise it with the facts to back yourself up. If it’s not an issue, you won’t have to run the risk of being called racist.
Whilst you’re doing your research, make sure you look at the results on a per capita basis.
Thanks.
there was a polish man who diesd sleeping rough about a year ago, it would be ridiculous to assume that only irish people end up homeless,
Homelessness is a very tough subject.
Obviously having children and families living on the streets is unacceptable in this day and age.
I may be wrong but surely most homeless people are that way because of their own actions, drugs alcohol etc…
Are we meant to spend endless sums of much needed public funds on them?
I would rather we built the new children’s hospital first.
Some people just aren’t part of society and paying huge amounts of money to try make them so is pointless.
Take the methadone scheme for example.
i think you’re wrong. very wrong. if they children and families were on the street, god knows where that would lead to but the single people are on the streets. just today there you hear of 30 or so homes soon available to families, 2,3,4 beds, how many will be for single people with no family? Theres your answer. Its not all drink and drugs as you might think.. Same with the housing lists, single people are way down the list. I seriously don’t understand how hard it is to work that one out.
f m,
You seriously need to get out more and talk to people , there are working people homeless. There are elderly people who are homeless. And there are very few , if any, landlords who will not take the rent supplement .
In the Health Services we hear the term Bed Blockers. There would be enough publicly owned accommodation if it had not become long stay for high income people which was not the original purpose.
Don’t take hard drugs, and you won’t end up homeless.
It’s not rocket science.
Tax young people……its the only way..
I too like to hide behind a fake account in order to troll…….it’s the only way…
…and to parade your ignorance.
have your say