Number of homeless adults in Cork reaches record levels 

A new homelessness record has been reached in Cork, with Cork Simon saying the figures will keep increasing until the Government stop ignoring the largest group of people in emergency accommodation.

There were 828 adults in homeless accommodation in Cork in June, new government figures show.

The latest number represents another record high, up from 819 in May and a 25% increase from 606 in June 2025.

The June figures also show that 902 adults were homeless in the southwest region, which covers Cork and Kerry — the first time this figure has exceeded 900.

In the southwest, there were 145 families with 255 children homeless in June, as well as 689 single adults.

The number of single adults experiencing homelessness in the southwest has risen by almost two-thirds in three years, while homelessness among all adults rose by just over half, a recent report by Cork Simon found.

Home Truths

The 689 single adults in emergency accommodation in the southwest represents a 63% increase since June 2023, when the first Home Truths paper on single adult homelessness was published.

Adults in families increased 41% and all adult homelessness in the southwest increased 57% in the same period.

Alongside the growing number of single adults entering and remaining in emergency accommodation, this report found fewer single adults were prevented from entering emergency accommodation and fewer moving on to tenancies each year.

As a result, long-term homelessness among these people facing homelessness alone is increasing, with more than half of single adults in emergency accommodation in the southwest now there for six months or more.

Sophie Johnston, who authored the report, told The Echo: “The number of single adults in emergency accommodation has increased consistently. It’s unfortunately been a steady upwards trajectory, and it has increased quite steeply especially in the last 18 months.

“Single adults at the moment account for more than three in four adults in emergency accommodation, and in terms of households it’s even higher at four in five. So they’re the largest group however you divide it up.

“The numbers are just going one way — up — and what we’re seeing in this report is the consequences of the invisibility of this group in government policy,” said Ms Johnson.

“The number of single adults is increasing, the routes out of homelessness are decreasing, and that all means more people long term homeless, lives put on hold.”

Scared of being stuck

David, whose name has been changed, said: “I am on the scared level of will I always be stuck in this shelter?

“I’d be scared of that factor. You know, how long, where am I going to end up? It always brings up the anxiety for me. It’s just that, not knowing, when or where.

“Like, you know, obviously there’s a housing crisis going on. I’m saying, like, what chance does a homeless guy have?”

In the final quarter of 2025, for every single adult leaving emergency accommodation to a tenancy, 20 remained.

Most of those who moved on entered tenancies with Approved Housing Bodies, while very few moved into private rented accommodation.

During 2025, for every one single adult prevented from entering emergency accommodation, on average five single adults entered emergency accommodation.

In 2024, 182 people facing homelessness alone in the southwest were prevented from becoming homeless, but by 2025 that had more than halved, to just 88.

Notice of termination

One third of preventions from entering homelessness involve private rented accommodation, and around one in four single adults newly entering emergency accommodation cite a notice of termination from a private landlord as the reason for their homelessness.

Ms Johnston said: “The private rental sector still plays an important, if small, role in preventions, but otherwise it has become a one way door.

“About one in four newly homeless single adults are coming from private rental sector, and while going back three years it accounted for half of exits of emergency accommodation to tenancies, that’s fallen off a cliff,” she said.

“There just isn’t the supply, and between that and very high prices, it’s not a feasible exit route for people in emergency accommodation anymore.”

Wayne, whose name has been changed, said he has been “homeless on and off, I suppose, three years.

“Just on the street and sleeping bags… in the shelter. The things I’ve seen in the last few years are probably going to traumatise me for the rest of my life.

“I’ve lived in rented accommodation before. I mean, I had my own apartment. I have done all this renting route before.”

He said he was on the social housing list “so it’s just a matter of waiting – I just know that it’s going to take a long time.

“Single males are at the bottom of the list. To be honest, I think ladies and children should be brought up first of all, I’m very aware of the situation.

“It’s just very difficult to maintain any kind of normality or security when I’m literally on the streets.”

Ms Johnston said that the government’s strategy for tackling homelessness, ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities’, has only “scant reference to single adults”, though there are targeted actions for other categories.

“It’s right that there are strategies dedicated to families, older people, people with disabilities – there should be, but there also needs to be one to address the situation for single adults,” she said.

Dedicated action plan needed

“We need a dedicated national action plan, we need targets for the delivery of one bed homes, and to strengthen homeless prevention methods for single adults.”

Ms Johnson said that though there had been some increases in the building of one bed homes, “it doesn’t match the need”, adding that as well as being the majority group in emergency accommodation, single adults were also the main group on the social housing waiting list.

“Even in general society, one in four households are single adults, and less than one in 10 homes are one bed, so there’s a real mismatch between the need and the supply.”

Single adults have a higher at risk of poverty rate than adults living in households with at least one other adult, and they also record significantly higher housing cost burden than all other household categories.

There is a particularly large discrepancy between the share of single person households and one-bed housing stock.

In 2022, single person households made up 24% of households in Cork city. However, one-bed homes accounted for only 7% of housing stock.

Cork Simon’s report noted that these figures do not include other housing demand, such as the increase in adults living with parents, with 23% of adults aged 25-34 living with parents according to the 2022 Census, compared to 17% in 2011.

Out of reach

Ms Johnston said: “The government strategy reaffirms their commitment to ending homelessness by 2030, but if single adults are not addressed, that will remain out of reach.”

Dara, (not his real name), said: “When I came here first, there was, like, loads of young fellas that I knew that were in here barely before me, like, and they’re still waiting.

“And that was nearly five years ago. So I can imagine now in another five years, I’ll still be waiting, which is the worst part about it.

“Five years homeless. It was addiction that brought me into homelessness. On the streets for a year and a half.

“I got clean and everything, do you know what I mean? I’m working now… working away, just trying to get a gaff, trying to get somewhere on my own – it’s practically impossible,” he said.

“I’ve been on the waiting list (social housing waiting list) since seven years. Yeah. I’d take a single flat anywhere but they’re all three-bedroom houses, and they’ll be allocated to, like, you know, families and stuff.

“Private rentals, see, private rentals are going to cost about €1,200 for a room a month, and that would be just a room like, a house share, and there’s not many of them going around.

“But there’s houses there, like, you go up to the northside and there’s whole estates, just house after house after house are boarded up.”