{"id":44740,"date":"2025-09-26T14:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44740\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T14:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T14:17:12","slug":"record-16353-people-including-more-than-5100-children-now-homeless-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/44740\/","title":{"rendered":"Record 16,353 people, including more than 5,100 children, now homeless in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were 16,353 people homeless<\/a> in Ireland at the end of August this year, including 5,145 children, breaking a record yet again for the numbers in emergency accommodation in this country.<\/p>\n

The Department of Housing\u2019s latest update said that 11,208 adults were also homeless at the end of last month, with 2,391 families among those in emergency accommodation. <\/p>\n

It is a rise from the figure recorded the month before, which in July stood at 16,058.<\/p>\n

Last month, it was announced that the number of children who were homeless in Ireland exceeded 5,000 for the first time<\/a> in what was described as a \u201cdark\u201d and \u201cshameful<\/a>\u201d day.<\/p>\n

As the numbers continue to worsen, advocates are pressing the Government to take meaningful action in next month\u2019s budget<\/a> to finally turn the tide on homelessness in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said that modest adjustments would not suffice, and a \u201cbold and transformative\u201d shift in housing was needed, along with a deadline for ending long-term family homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urgently need to see social housing supply increased to the Government\u2019s new target of 12,000 homes per year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have also urged the Government to take immediate steps in Budget 2026 to prevent more people from becoming homeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes reviewing the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) to ensure it reflects current market rents and restoring full funding to the Tenant-In-Situ scheme so that more households can be protected from losing their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent months, the scheme has been drastically scaled back, causing local authorities to pause purchases and leaving many tenants already homeless and countless others facing the real threat of eviction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dublin Simon CEO Catherine Kenny said that the Government cannot expect things to improve by acting the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings needed to change long ago, but it is not too late for those in power to take decisive action,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBudget 2026 must include a clear, cross-departmental plan to tackle homelessness as a housing, health, and social emergency. This cannot be solved in one year\u2014what we expect is the start of sustained investment over the coming years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne described the figures as a \u201cshameful milestone\u201d and said urgent action must be taken.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget must reinstate the full Tenant-In-Situ scheme and increase its funding so that local authorities can keep those facing eviction into homelessness in their homes and turn insecure private rental housing into social housing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese abject failures are intolerable and inexcusable \u2014 rising levels of homelessness will continue to outpace any social and affordable housing delivery from the State unless there is a radical shift in government policy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were 16,353 people homeless in Ireland at the end of August this year, including 5,145 children, breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29289,807,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-44740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-homelessness","tag-housing","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}