Record 15,378 people living in emergency accommodation last month

By Cate McCurry, PA

A record 15,378 people were living in emergency accommodation last month, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.

The figures, published on Friday, show that of those living in emergency accommodation in February, a total of 4,653 were children.

The data indicates that there was an increase of 92 people accessing emergency accommodation last month when compared with January.

There was also an increase in the number of children in homelessness, which increased from 4,603 in January.

🚨Breaking: Homelessness reaches a new record high on the watch of the FF/FG/Lowry Government! 15,378 people are now homeless, including 4,653 children.

This is a direct result of the broken housing policies of Micheál Martin and Simon Harris. We have a do-nothing government…

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) March 28, 2025

There were a total of 2,185 families in homelessness, and more than half of those were single-parent families.

The data shows that people aged between 25 and 44 make up the highest proportion of adults in homelessness.

The true figure of homelessness is thought to be much higher, as the monthly figures do not include people sleeping rough on the street, people couch-surfing or those who access accommodation in domestic violence refuges.

Focus Ireland chief executive Pat Dennigan said: “As the clocks move forward tomorrow, bringing longer and brighter evenings, it should be a time when all children look forward to playing outside.

“Instead, 4,653 children are stuck living in emergency accommodation, with no place to call home.

“This situation would have been considered utterly unacceptable just 10 years ago, and we must remember that is something that can be solved.

“One key measure would be for new Minister for Housing James Browne to implement the Programme for Government commitment that more of the new supply of social housing is used to provide homes for long-term homeless families.

“This same approach drove the sharp fall in homelessness during the pandemic five years ago and we should learn from this approach.

“We believe that it is possible to reduce and then end homelessness if the right actions are taken.”

It comes as a property survey shows that in the first quarter of the year, the average price of a second-hand property in Dublin stands at €593,936, an increase of more than €50,000 since the end of March last year.

The residential market review from estate agents DNG forecasts that prices will continue to rise because of the lack of new homes to purchase by private buyers.

The review shows that the average price of a resale property in the city increased by 1.9 per cent in the first three months of the year.

DNG said it believes that the total number of new houses built last year was around 32,500 – similar to that reported by the Central Statistics Office.

Minister for Transport and former housing minister Darragh O’Brien said the Government wanted to see house prices “moderate”.

He added: “I haven’t seen the full detail of the (DNG) report. I’ve seen the headlines of it, and obviously, Government want to see house prices moderate and return to a level where they’re affordable.

“That’s why it’s so important, particularly in the current situation, that we continue as a state to invest in housing. This year, we’ll invest over six billion euro in housing, in affordable housing, continue to ramp up the First Home scheme, which has been really successful in helping people purchase homes.

“We need to accelerate delivery. We know that. I think under the last administration, we’re able to deliver over 130,000 new homes, make a real impact with regard to vacancy, bringing vacant stock into use.

“The phenomenon that we’re seeing in relation to continuing increase in prices is not unique to Ireland, either.

“We have a housing deficit across Europe. I was looking with interest as well with regard to Australia, which is mentioned quite often in the Dail, people talk about Australia and people leaving to move to Australia, from a housing perspective, very serious situation with housing there as well, which will be central to the general election in Australia.

“I just say that, by way of example, that these are not issues that are unique to Ireland, but certainly we want to see house prices moderate.

“It’s important that we continue to accelerate the delivery of particularly first-time buyer homes, continue to roll out cost rental housing, and to continue to accelerate the delivery of really good quality social housing, which we were able to do in the last five years.”