Amount of homeless in Carlow revealed as national figures hit new records

A total of 35 adults are currently registered as homeless in Carlow, as national figures reach a new high. 

The South East saw figures increase by 3% in the past month. 

There were 27 adult families accessing emergency accommodation services in the south east in the last week of July. 

Nationally, the number of adults and children who are homeless has reached a new record high of 10,568, as housing charities warned that an urgent response was needed to prevent the crisis from worsening.

The previous peak for the Department of Housing’s official figures was in October 2019, when 10,514 people were recorded as being in emergency accommodation.

The department’s latest monthly figures show there are 7,431 adults and 3,137 children who are in accommodation for people who are homeless across Ireland.

This comes after a record high number of young adults were registered as homeless in April, when the number of homeless people passed the 10,000 threshold for the first time since the pandemic began.

The Government is grappling with a lack of accommodation for arriving Ukrainian refugees and with a squeeze on affordable student accommodation this autumn amid the long-running housing crisis.

Housing charity Dublin Simon Community said the homelessness crisis has “never been this bleak or urgent”, and called on the Government and other agencies to work on a crisis plan “as a matter of urgency”.

Dublin Simon Community spokeswoman Caoimhe O’Connell said: “We are extremely distressed by the ongoing rise in the number of people presenting in emergency accommodation.

“Last month, we broke a record we never wanted to reach in Dublin and now, devastatingly, the same has happened at a national level.

“In our 50 years of providing homeless services, the situation has never been this bleak or urgent.”

Carlow TD receives update on school transport scheme allocation

Fines for failing to stop for school traffic wardens in Carlow set to double

Chief executive of the charity Focus Ireland Pat Dennigan warned that the figures represented just a small glimpse at the scale and severity of the housing crisis.

“The real number of people who have no home is no doubt considerably higher as local authorities across the country are reporting that every emergency bed is full, and people are being asked to stay temporarily in unsuitable circumstances while new shelters are being commissioned,” he said.

“This hidden homelessness is also at record levels.”

Mr Dennigan added that the crisis is expected to get worse, as a significant number of landlords leave the market in order to sell their properties.

“Not all these households will need homeless services, and we will be working to help people find alternative homes but it is hard to see emergency homeless services being able to cope with the number of people that will need our support. This scale of escalating crisis needs a proportionate scale of emergency response.”

He asked the government to convince landlords to stay in the market in the medium-term while the supply of houses is ramped up.

This could include short-term tax relief, he said.

Sinn Fein housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin said that since the eviction moratorium was ended by Government in April last year, homelessness “has surged to its highest level ever”.

In April 2021, there was a total of 7,991 people recorded in emergency homeless accommodation; the latest figures show that tally has since risen by 32%.

Social Democrat TD Cian O’Callaghan said that behind the statistics are “lives that have been shattered by a broken system”.

“Homelessness has increased by 30% in the past year – while child homelessness is up by 47% during the same period. These figures are proof that the Government’s plans are failing.

“The Government talks about ending homelessness by 2030, but they have no plan, no strategy, no milestones – and the numbers are going up, not down,” he said.

Reacting to the figures, Labour housing spokesperson Rebecca Moynihan said the political will in Government needed to change to solve the housing crisis.