Number of homeless people surpasses 17,000 for the first time

The number of people in emergency accommodation has surpassed 17,000 for the first time in what housing charities called “disgraceful” and a “social injustice milestone”.

The figures come as the Government’s new rental reforms are due to kick in from Sunday March 1, which opposition parties said would fuel rates of homelessness further.

The Department of Housing’s official figures state there were 17,112 people in emergency accommodation in January: 11,793 adults and 5,319 children.

They also show that 2,555 families and 274 people aged over 65 were among the latest homeless figures.

Half of those recorded as homeless in January were Irish, 20% were from the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes all EU countries, and 30% were from outside the EEA.

The number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been increasing steadily for years.

The figures up until November marked 11 months in a row of record highs, before a slight fall in December as part of a seasonal trend where homeless people might stay with family or friends for Christmas.

The monthly figures from the Department of Housing also do not account for people sleeping rough, or those staying in hospitals, asylum centres or domestic violence shelters, meaning they are likely an underestimation of the number of homeless people in Ireland.

Chief executive of Dublin Simon Community Catherine Kenny said it was “essential” that efforts are made to increase housing supply and said they needed to ensure people can move out of emergency accommodation and into homes.

“For the thousands counted by the system, and the many others outside of official record, there needs to finally be a sustained response to what is truly the crisis of a generation,” she said.

“Sadly, another social injustice milestone has been reached with record homeless figures.”

Focus Ireland chief executive Pat Dennigan said yet another record high of homeless people was “disgraceful” and the number of homeless children – 5,319 – was “heartbreaking”.

“Homelessness hurts everyone but we know it hurts children the most and we are working hard in partnership with the State and other NGOs every day to protect people while they are homeless,” he said.

“Even as the crisis is deepening it must be remembered that homelessness can be solved if the right policies are in place and we are ending homelessness for families and individuals every day.

“However, we need a shift in policy to ease this human crisis.”

Executive director of the Simon Communities of Ireland Ber Grogan said it was “unacceptable that this crisis is deepening”.

She noted that single adults make up nearly three-quarters of all households experiencing homelessness.

“While the new Housing Plan has a welcome focus on children and family homelessness, we simply cannot allow for single adults to be forgotten about and by-passed when investing in solutions,” she said.

“Everyone has a right to a safe home and the dignity that comes with it. There needs to be a sustained focus on single adults as part of the wider plan.

“We urgently need a dedicated single-adult homelessness strategy and a rapid supply of one-bed units.”

Housing charities and opposition parties also raised concerns about changes to the rental market and how this could impact on homelessness in Ireland.

Ms Kenny said ahead of the new rental regulations that “homelessness is tied to conditions in the private rental market”.

“In Dublin, one in four households who become homeless come from the private rental market, citing notices of termination and affordability as the reasons,” she said.

She said a review of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which has not been increased in nine years, was now “paramount” while Mr Dennigan said HAP was “a vital tool in tackling homelessness”.

“In 2025, in Dublin City alone, 3,000 people moved out of homelessness using HAP tenancies,” he said.

Mr Dennigan said that while the greater security for new tenants was welcomed, he said without changes to HAP more people will become homeless or stay homeless when rental properties rise to “unaffordable” market rates.

He said the change means from Sunday a new tenancy will be paying “substantially higher than they would have been last month” and that these increases could be as high as 25%.

“No-one including the Government knows what this increase will be, but informed estimates range from 10% to 25%,” he said.

Sinn Fein housing spokesman Eoin O Broin said there was a 26% increase in homelessness a year and a 30% increase in child homelessness.

He said the rental changes on Sunday would see renters pay “thousands upon thousands” in more rent and for those who cannot afford to, they risk becoming homeless.

“Not only is tackling the homelessness crisis not this Government’s priority, they are consciously, deliberately and knowingly making it worse.”

He accused Housing Minister James Browne of a “car crash interview” on RTE Radio and said he had “no idea” that rents would fall in the long run as a result of these changes.

“I don’t believe the minister for a second, but the records speaks for itself, 55,000 separate adults,” he said.

“Just think about that for a second, that’s more than the entire population of Co Longford.

“That’s more than the entire population of the largest town in the country, Drogheda.

“That’s more than it would take to fill a sell-out capacity event at the Aviva Stadium.

“Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have made that number of people homeless over the last decade.”

Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said homelessness had increased by 10% since Mr Browne became housing minister.

“We are going to see these numbers that stand at over 17,000 go through the roof in the next year to two years.”

Social Democrats housing spokesman Rory Hearne said the child homeless figures represented “a devastating rise”.

“The Government’s rental changes do nothing to protect the hundreds of thousands of renters who are in existing tenancies, who will still be subject to no-fault evictions – we will continue to see thousands of children in this country subjected to the trauma of homelessness, trauma that is utterly preventable.”

People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett said: “The Government’s Residential Tenancies Bill will hike rents even more, driving more people into homelessness and exacerbating the crisis even further.”