‘Homeless rise due to lifting of eviction ban’

SINN Féin councillor Kenneth Collins has raised concerns about the number of people who entered homelessness in Cork in 2023.

Figures issued to him by Cork City Council in response to a question put at a recent meeting revealed that 88 families entered homelessness in the city in 2023.

The figures, which were issued to Mr Collins by the director of housing operations at Cork City Council, Niall Ó Donnabháin, also showed that 338 individuals, including 152 children, entered homelessness in Cork last year.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Collins said the figures show that the lifting of the eviction ban in March 2023 had led to an increase in homelessness in Cork.

“We were calling for the ban to stay in place, but the Government did not listen to what we were asking for. The increase in these figures proves what we were saying,” he said.

“These families are families that we know who went through the system, but there are people who haven’t gone through the system and who are struggling because some people are unaware that you can go through the system and others have family members helping them, so you have to think of those hidden figures as well.”

According to the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage monthly homelessness report, for November 2023, which was published on January 5, there were 545 adults accessing emergency accommodation in Cork City and county councils from November 20 to November 26.

In the same week, 590 adults were accessing local authority-managed emergency accommodation in the South West.

There were 107 families accessing emergency accommodation, of which 69 were single-parent. There were 72 adults aged 18 aged 24; 344 adults aged 25 to 44; 158 adults aged 45 to 64, and 16 adults aged 65 and over in emergency accommodation in the South West.

Of those, there were 398 people in private emergency accommodation and 192 people in supported temporary accommodation.

Nationally, during quarter three, 703 adults exited emergency accommodation by way of a tenancy being created, with a further 882 prevented from entering emergency accommodation in the first instance.