591 adults were in emergency accommodation in Cork over Christmas

A new record of 591 adults were homeless in Cork in December 2024, up from 589 last month and an increase of more than 8% since December 2023.

Paul Sheehan from Cork Simon Community told The Echo that it was looking like Cork was going to hit 600 adults in emergency accommodation soon, saying: “The figures have gone up over 8% since December 2023, and they’re no surprise.

“We’d expect to see a comprehensive plan being published by the new government on how to tackle homelessness as a matter of urgency — we haven’t seen any evidence of this being treated as the crisis that it is.

“Clearly, the measures of the last government had very little impact, if any, the new government needs to take cognisance of that and put together a strategy.”

He added that it was “impossible to say” if the new programme for government would help “because there’s no detail in that programme”.

Mr Sheehan continued: “Ireland signed up to end homelessness by 2030, and there’s no sign of that happening over the next few years, we would need real measures put in place to reach that goal and it’s only five years away.

“Emergency accommodation is well beyond its capacity at this stage, it should only be for an emergency which begs the question ‘how long is an emergency?’ We saw the number of people who are long term homeless increase again in 2024, and we know the longer someone stays stuck in emergency accommodation, the harder it is to get out. It’s essentially a trauma on top of a trauma, and the Government seems to be turning a blind eye to it.”

Social Democrats Cork South Central TD Pádraig Rice pointed out that nearly 200 children in the South West region (Cork and Kerry) are in living in homeless emergency accommodation, calling the figures “alarmingly high”.

He said: “Rents in Cork keep rising and too many people are being evicted. The new Minister for Housing must take a new approach because it is crystal clear that the current policy has utterly failed.

He called for an emergency response from the new government including a full reinstatement of a no-fault evictions ban and a funding increase for homeless prevention supports and services.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central Thomas Gould told The Echo: “This is climbing month on month.

“There is a real bottleneck in the system and that is having huge impacts on people’s ability to work, to develop and on their mental health. We may have a new Minister for Housing but so far, there is no indication we will have a new approach.”