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THE NUMBER OF people experiencing homelessness in Ireland has once again hit a record high with latest government figures showing that 11,754 people were living in emergency accommodation in January.
It is the seventh consecutive month that the record number has been broken.
A total of 8,323 adults and 3,431 children were living in emergency accommodation during the week of 23 to 29 January.
This is a rise from 11,632 people recorded as living in emergency accommodation in November.
The figure from December includes 5,042 Irish citizens, 1,840 European Economic Area / UK citizens and 1,441 non-EEA citizens.
The 11,754 people living in emergency accommodation in January 2023 compared to 9,150 people living in emergency accommodation in the previous January, a 25% increase over the course of a year.
The Dublin Simon Community said it is “deeply worried” about the increase in the number of people staying in emergency accommodation.
“Behind the statistics are real people. Through no fault of their own, they are unable to afford to rent, and unable to afford to buy a home. They cannot move forward with their lives and the lives of their families,” Dublin Simon Community CEO Catherine Kenny said.
“Single people are significantly impacted, with a limited amount of suitable one and two bed properties for them to rent or purchase,” Kenny said.
“Ireland is an economic success story, yet there are far too many people who do not have homes of their own. It is little wonder that so many feel powerless and disenfranchised.”
An eviction ban is currently in place until 1 April 2023.
Under the legislation, all notices to quit that are issued over the period of the emergency ban will be deferred until at least the end of March 2023.
While notices to quit can still be issued to tenants while the ban is in effect, they will not be able to be evicted until after the ban ends.
However, when these evictions actually take place will be dependant on a number of factors, including the date on which the notice was served and the length of the tenancy.
This also means that notices to quit issued before the ban takes place will not go ahead until at least 1 April.
Speaking about the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he sought the views of his members on the eviction ban and whether it should be extended past March.
“There was a diversity of views,” he said, adding “it’s not a black and white decision to extend or not to extend. There are other things at play as well”.
“We will make a decision, as I said in the Dáil within the next week or two, so that people know where they stand on the matter.”
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan has said it is “essential” the eviction ban is extended.
“The introduction of the winter eviction ban last October was essential. At the time all emergency homeless accommodation was full and over 1,000 households faced eviction by landlords wanting to sell up,” Dennigan said.
“Both those conditions still exist so it is essential that the ban be continued to avoid an additional surge in family homelessness,” he said.
“It is wrong to say, as some have claimed, that the winter eviction ban has failed, the situation would be far worse without it and will rapidly become worse if it is ended. What has failed is the Government’s attempts to use the breathing space to make a real difference.”
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Why would they fix this crisis? One mans emergency accommodation supplement is another hoteliers income! It’s not in their interest to fix the housing crisis. It’s better for the youth who are voting against the government in their droves to emigrate, and those happy homeowners to stay placated with rising housing costs. If they wanted to fix this crisis, we wouldn’t have an almost half billion euro unspent housing budget. We’d have no housing budget left and a state construction company mass building public housing to take pressure off both public and private stocks. But that isn’t in their interest. Roll on the election.
@Sean Stevenson: ah ease up with the conspiracy theories. It is in politicians interest to fix the housing problems- ( they want to be re-elected)
they’re just too incompetent
@Dave Harris: I don’t think it’s a conspiracy when the government has been leveraging this housing crisis to be a mass transfer of public money to private wallets since its onset. Why do we have such a large spend on HAP, public money to private landlords for people stuck in the rent trap, instead of spending those hundreds of millions on new public housing stock. Why do we have thousands in emergency accommodation, public money to private hoteliers, instead of using this money to build public housing stock. Families placed in public housing, at the end of their tenure, leave a property to be inhabited by others. Families stuck in emergency accommodation or HAP housing get nothing more than a rich person getting richer.
While FF, FG and the GP are in government we can expect the same story every month
@Tipper Irie: Just heard an interesting debate on radio on how Sinn Fein will fix it. Maurice Quinlivin, Sinn Fein was all for rapid builds and castigating the government. However it had to be pointed out to him that their local councillor in Kilmallock was organising local opposition to a rapid build scheme.
@Tipper Irie: They could try and come up with proper solutions. We don’t always have to be like the rest of Europe, do we? We are a small island and we can’t seem to manage anything right.
@Tipper Irie: NAMA sold €10b worth of homes to Vulture funds for €1b, that was very clever and full of foresight wasn’t it?
@Michael Reilly: I heard him too. Typical shinner. Hypocrites.
@John Long: the government has single-handedly destroyed the private rented sector.
@John Long: no homeless in NI then?
They are fairly consistent at breaking this record in fairness to them
Quite a few years ago, I was friends with the sacristan at Westminster Cathedral. He used to let some homeless old ladies sleep in the crypt chapel. One night, the administrator (an Irishman, later an auxiliary bishop after Basil died), happened upon them and threw them out. Cardinal Basil Hume, the Benedictine Archbishop, used to walk around at night meeting the poor. One of the ladies told him what happened. The following night the cathedral hall was opened to the poor and homeless, with mattresses on the floor and two staff making hot drinks. This persisted throughout the winter.
I haven’t seen any of the churches stepping up.
@Niall Sheridan: Stepping up like that would be the Christian thing to do. But most of the Catholic orders around here are too busy holding on to their property lest it be taken to pay for compensation.
@Stephen Deegan: Absolutely agree Stephen. Sadly there are many churches and halls empty at night. A minister I know said it was because the insurance wouldn’t cover it. How do homeless shelters get cover? By paying up. Churches could easily stay open all night and heat the buildings, with a staff member present. No insurance company could ask them to close. Just ignoring the poor. Makes me sick when I see homeless figures going up and no government aid – useless Taoiseach [elected on the fifth count]. He’s all right, he took in his [token] Ukanian lady. Couldn’t give a damn.
@Stephen Deegan: to be fair they’re frequented by older people. They would be walking into a Sunday Mass to a crack den, syringes, the churches as a night time stop over aren’t the answer, nor is a priests residence so I don’t see this as a solution unless I’m missing something
Vote FF and FG out. Give a right wing government a chance. Florida is doing very well under DeSantis.
Vote Aontu and continue your preferences for Renua, National party and Irish freedom party.
@Samantha Samantha: thankfully the anti women social dinosaur party and freedumb nazi party have virtually 0 support, so won’t happen
@Samantha Samantha: Florida has the third highest homelessness rate in the USA – De Santis isn’t so great there.
Has the percentage dropped tho? Our population has grown by 400k in the last 6 years so what’s the percentage to the population?
@Jonny Parkinson: looking for a positive spin on this ?
@Jonny Parkinson: I’m sure all those homeless people, would feel much better if the percentage was down.
@Tommy Berry: yeah but you can’t beat the government with a stick without the actual facts, yes numbers have risen but so has our population considerably. Hence the shortage of housing and increasing prices, it’s all connected. The opposition like to point out their failures but don’t acknowledge that our economy has grown considerably and we now have greater inward migration than outward and our collective wealth has risen considerably.
Unfortunately there will always be a small percentage that end up homeless due to a number of different circumstances. All the government can do is to try keep the percentage down as best as possible.
Wait for the figures once the eviction ban is lifted. Hopefully, it won’t.
Too many vested in trests here to solve anything…….
Temporary Prefabs
Mobile homes
Log cabins
Grants to build extensions on existing Houses for extended Families.
Councils to buy a block of Apts for starter families…
Requisition unused office blocks and use as Temporary accommodation.
Hotel season about to start so they will be turfing out some refugees….
Where theres a Will theres a Way.
just blame SF.. they are the ones in gov
Hi @Hayley, can you add sources for that data too if you have them, thanks.
@Jimmy Casey: It is from the monthly report ‘The Homeless Report’ from the Department of Housing.
There is a perception out there that the left wing parties will “solve” the housing crisis.
When it comes to building things, a capitalist society works over a socialist society by workers going the extra mile, especially in a timely manner. And is better at controlling costs and finding efficiencies.
There is probably a very good economic model that uses the principles and of socialism but the working methods of capitalism. I dont know do the left wing parties know how to manage this. Genuinely it would be good to hear their specific ideas in this regard.
@Don: You are right.
No one can solve the Housing mess in Ireland, including Sinn Fein, until the Constitution is amended by a Referendum on Housing.
It was first proposed in 1974. – hopefully to be run in 2023.
It is essential to balance property rights with housing/shelter citizen rights.
It would also have prevented the 2008 housing CRASH.
No housing crash in France, Germany, Holland where their Constitutions have fixed this problem.
have your say