Homeless numbers reach new high of almost 15,000 amid general election

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

The number of people in emergency homeless accommodation across Ireland has reached a new record high of 14,966, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.

The figures came halfway through voting in the general election and show the continuation of a near-consistent rise in recent years, which has repeatedly set new records.

The data, released on Friday afternoon, shows that 10,321 adults and 4,645 children were accessing emergency accommodation during the last week of October – the highest ever in both metrics.

The statistics are commonly referred to as the “homelessness figures”, but do not include people sleeping rough, those that may be couch surfing or homeless in hospitals or prisons, or those who are in shelter for asylum seekers or domestic violence centres.

The numbers also reveal that there were a total of 2,161 families using such services.

Of the 10,321 adults, 61 per cent were male and 39 per cent were female. Overall, 65 per cent were classified as single adults.

Of the 2,161 families, 1,245 were single-parent groups.

The timing of the monthly statistics became a political football in the later stages of the campaign, with opposition parties arguing they should have been available to voters prior to polls opening.

However, senior figures in Fianna Fáil – the party which holds the housing portfolio – said they would not interfere with the regularised schedule for the figures.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien claimed he could not bring the figures forward as he did not have control over their publication, adding that they needed to be independently verified.

He said there had been agreement that the figures would always be released at 2pm on the last Friday of every month.

That decision has been defended as a means of limiting the possibility of politicising the timing of their release.

Homelessness – and the delivery of housing more generally – was a key focus of the election campaign, with parties offering radically different solutions to the State’s housing crisis.

In a pre-election interview, Micheál Martin, the Fianna Fáil leader, said he could not guarantee when homelessness figures would peak, but added that he would like to see a reduction “within 12 months”.