More than 11,600 people including almost 3,500 children were accessing emergency accommodation during the week leading up to Christmas, according to the latest homelessness figures.
Experts who work with the homeless have called the figures, which are higher than the previous record total of 11,542 that was recorded in the final week of November 2022, “worrying” and “shameful.”
According to the Department of Housing’s recently released report on homelessness, the most latest period of time for which data is available, 8,190 adults and 3,442 children were staying in emergency housing during the week of December 19 to December 25.
The total number of adults staying in emergency housing was 1,594, and 856 of them were single parents living in family units.
In Dublin alone, there were 5,793 people who found themselves without a home this Christmas, including 2,583 children. While the figures are similar to those for November last year, there is still a slight increase of 0.8 percent which represents a record high in numbers for the sixth consecutive month.
Along with 352 in Limerick, 272 in Galway, 205 in county Kildare, and 185 in county Meath, Cork city and county was home to 503 of the total number of adults staying in emergency housing during Christmas week.
The adults in emergency housing during that week were made up of 4,971 Irish citizens, or 61% of the total, and 1,826 residents of the UK or the E.U., or 22% of the total.
A total of 1,393 foreign nationals, or 17% of all adults staying in emergency housing, were counted.
In response to the most recent report, the head of the homeless charity Depaul, David Carroll, stated: “Numbers in homelessness remain at worrying levels and targeted measures are needed to tackle the scale of the homelessness and housing crisis we are currently facing at this juncture.”