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THE NUMBER OF homeless adults and children living in state-funded emergency accommodation in Ireland has risen again, latest figures show.
The March homeless report from the Department of Housing shows an increase of four adults and 37 children living in emergency accommodation in the state.
There were 6,484 homeless adults and 3,821 children living in this type of accommodation last month, giving a combined total of 10,305 people.
This is the highest number on record since the Department started recording these numbers, making it the third consecutive month that the record has been surpassed.
Of the total number, the vast majority are in Dublin. There were a total of 4,315 adults and 2,806 children in homeless emergency accommodation in Dublin last month.
“We continue to put considerable efforts in to prevent people from entering emergency accommodation, while also exiting as many families and individuals from homelessness as possible each month,” Housing Minister Murphy said.
The government was roundly criticised by opposition politicians and NGOs for its record on homelessness. The Fine Gael / Independent government has overseen significant rises in homelessness since it took power.
The number of homeless children has risen by over 1,000 and the number of homeless adults has jumped by about 2,4000 since May 2016, when the government came into power.
“Once again we have seen further increases in the number of people that are homeless across the state. This is a clear indication that homeless services are failing the most vulnerable in our society and Rebuilding Ireland [the government's Housing Action Plan] has been a total failure,” CEO of Inner City Helping Homeless Anthony Flynn said.
The homelessness crisis has increased year on year and we are now in the midst of the worst levels of homelessness in the history of the state and Minister Murphy and his department are directly responsible for this.
Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin also said that the government’s housing plan wasn’t working, and called for mass protests calling for a new housing policy.
“Until the government accepts that Rebuilding Ireland is not working and implements a new housing policy things are going to get worse. But only mass mobilisation on the streets and pressure in the Dáil and Council can secure this,” he said.
Rough sleepers
Today also saw the publication of figures from the spring rough sleeper count. The count aims to assess the number of people sleeping rough in Dublin on a single night in April.
It found a total of 128 people sleeping rough on the night of 9 and early morning of 10 April. This marks a decrease of 28 from the winter rough sleeper count in November.
However, it marks a rise of 18 on the spring count last year, which is more directly comparable.
Of the people found to be rough sleeping in Dublin, 75% were male and 25% were female.
Just under 80% were Irish nationals, while 21% were non-Irish nationals, excluding a total of 29 people whose nationality was not identified.
Commenting on the numbers, Eileen Gleeson – director of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive – said that the large number of people sleeping rough was a “serious area of concern”.
“We have been working with our charity partners to increase emergency accommodation, and have increased capacity by 250 permanent beds,” she said.
The essential response to address the needs of people sleeping rough is the provision of more long-term housing solutions for individuals and couples.
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If the councillors have no power, what’s the point of having them?
You are so right N we pay our councillors 14;5 K pa + expenses. Some of these people can rack about 45 or 50 K a year!
Why should Dublin have free bin collection when here in my home town we pay for this service and have done so for a number of years and it’s a lot more than €100 euro. So if they don’t want to pay let them rot in their own filth.
It’s grand, we’ll just leave rubbish all over the place in your country’s capital city, I doubt the tourists will mind.
I completely agree! Dublin has this impression that everyone must pay for their problems even though they are of their own making! Metro north was another one! I drive to airport and dont want to spend 400 million on a link to the airport! It’s your own doing so literally clean up your own!!
Idont care is about right. You haven’t a clue have you. Dubliners paid Dublin city council to collect the rubbish before they transferred the ‘service’ to greyhound.
You have completely missed the point just so you could have ur anti dublin rant…..we pay bin charges. I reccommend you read the article this time.
@Idont Care
The issue is not about people not wanting to pay for a service, the issue is a lack of a service. I haven’t had my rubbish collected this year yet, six weeks in. And I’ve paid with my bin tags and am happy to pay for a service. I’m one of the lucky ones, if you can call it that – in that I’ve a garden where I can store my rubbish (/attract a menagerie of local animals every night) until Greyhound decide to actually collect it – but no waste collected since Christmas is a joke.
I haven’t once been contacted by Greyhound about formalities of changing over or even what their new collection schedule is. It was, according to their website, supposed to be collected this morning but sure enough, another Wednesday has passed by and the rubbish that I’ve paid to be collected builds up.
Your anti-Dublin tribalism is charming but unfortunately completely misplaced.
We’re not looking for free collection, you muppet; we’ve been paying DCC bin charges for years. It’s the complete lack of service, or communication or information about said service, that’s the problem. We have not been sent the Information Packs and Payment Cards we were supposed to get so we CAN’T f***ing pay, that’s why we haven’t! Get over your anti-Dublin, “bloody Jackeens” bias and actually inform yourself of what’s going on before you start bitching.
Muppet @ I don’t care. We’ve been paying 8 euro per collection for years.
Well if they cannot sort it out now they will have a huge problem and very quickly the invasion will cost a huge sum to sort….. RATS RATS AND MORE RATS
Disgraceful way to conduct business
Yup. New York decreased bin collections as a budget decision and the rats are massive problem! Piles of rubbish bags sitting out for a few days, rats hiding in the middle!
I blame Thatcher, down with privatisation
Absolutely. The cow ;)
The issue is not the charge, but people not being informed of the change over process. Myself and most people in my area have received no information from greyhound or Dublin city council. Only a few have received a request for payment and every week since the changeover about half the tagged bags are being left on the street. Greyhound are clearly not doing what they say they are, and yet want payment up front. Not good enough.
People just like to vent their anti dublin bile every now and again. Makes them feel better having something to give out about. While they completely ignore the real issue which its exactly a you say….the way the changeover was handled not the cost.
I am actually sick of contacting both Greyhound and DCC about this issue. I have not recieved any response from Greyhound about as to why there are bins being left on my street for over 3 weeks now. I have sent 3 emails and rang on numerous occasions only to be told that someone will contact me, Im still waiting. I just rang DCC to make a complaint about the state of the streets, they now have to send a litter warden out to clean up the mess that Greyhound have left behind. The city is turning into a landfill.
Yes the changeover should have been done more carefully and planned.Until that was sorted they should have left things as they are.There must be some red faces in the council.
We’re not refusing to pay, we CAN’T pay – they haven’t sent us our payment cards!
Proposed phone call to be made:
‘hello greyhound here is my bin account number and my credit/debit card number. I’d like to pay the service charge please. ‘
Put bin tags on your rubbish and dump it outside the DCC the Dàil or Greyhounds main office. You have paid your charges now let them sort it out if they want.
Love it…..! Lol
Very tempting, trust me.
Sure just pay the service charge if you want them collected lads….I’m joking, I’m joking! ;) The whole situation is God awful but I’ve nearly wet myself laughing reading through the comments (particularly those who have clearly missed the point!)
Its a loadbof rubbish really
Of course it’s a shambles. If FG get their way and privatise everything else that will be a shambles too. Don’t allow them sell everything from under us.
It’s only free for recycling the cost of bin tags are 3.50 each it used to be free for elderly people. The cost of 1 bag of rubbish per week per year 182 euro. This is for houses that don’t have the room for wheelie bins, which are the ones that are not paying the 50 euro sign up charge.
Outside Dublin we pay 30 euro a month for one bin on alternate weeks which means about 2/3 big bags in a two week period. Stop moaning about it and pay the piper!!
Move to dublin….cheaper bin charges. Id hate to have to party that much. Bummer.
Moaning about bin charges in Dublin, is like moaning about a fiver for your septic tank down the country…build a bridge and get over it.
Don’t have septic tank by the way! Dcc just stated that they had to sell the garbage collection as they ran debt up to 6 million as people wouldnt pay!
Once again the Dubs are giving out about paying for their bins. They were at it about 5yrs ago and they’re at again now. At the moment I’m paying nearly €300 for bin collection, they’re still getting it cheaper than a lot of people in the country.
Surely thats the pot and the kettle….you are giving out about bin charges…
What is with the boggers thinking we don’t pay for rubbish collection? That wasn’t even the point of the article in the first place.
Once again, read the bloody article, and comments from Dubliners and the like of Ronan Lyons above – we don’t have a problem paying, but we can’t pay because they haven’t given us our payment cards!! Nor bothered to collect our rubbish in several weeks.
U never paid before either 6 million debt was ran up and that came from the Dublin mayor!
We never paid before? How did you come to that conclusion?
Load of rubbish lol,typo…
If the cost is not the issue then pay the €100 the rubbish is not being collected because the service charge has not been paid.
Is this service charge new? Most other providers including county councils have a service charge and collect the recycle bin for this charge “free”
Saying this the changeover has been a shambles. Kildare coco recently changed their provider and it went smoothly rubbish is collected on the same day. Same bins are used and the new provider AES has put their stickers on them. Also those with a waiver have that for the next two years
can someone explain who exactly it is that the Lord Mayor is criticising here?? if he’s the Lord Mayor does he not have a role??
sick and tired of these people in roles of responsibility turning around and announcing that something is unacceptable!! we’re the ones saying that! you’re the one who’s supposed to fix it!
Its actually laughable! 6 million debt was rung up by people in Dublin not paying the council so it seems ye dubs do have a problem paying! Ye expect everything to be handed to ye on a plate cause your the capita. I don’t care if it’s the capital I don’t live there! People in dingle don’t have rubbish charges paid for them because tourists visit the town! Pay up!!
Ahahahaha ur hilarious. get back under ur bridge.
Thanks Niamh :) at least my bridge won’t have a rat infestation near it!!!
Ha ha, just a tourist fungi infestation. ;)
Every time we see a “shambles” in and around Dublin be it flooding, non inspection and signing off of dangerous apartments, bad preparation for well forecasted snowfall and now the latest fiasco with the privatisation of the garbage collections the ‘DUBLIN CITY MANAGER’ features large in it. who is this person, is it just me or is there a clear pattern of incompetence here? Shambles after shambles, the phrase ‘out of their depth’ springs to mind surely someone needs to ask wether this person is up to the job and if they are not, then FIRE THEM!
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