11,632 people accessed emergency accommodation in Ireland in December 2022 – a 30% increase in the space of a year, including almost 1,600 families living in homelessness in Ireland.
This figure also includes 3,442 children who were in emergency accommodation in the week leading up to Christmas.
It’s the first time that the figures have went up every month in a calendar year.
Meanwhile are over 8,300 homeless in Dublin, including more than 2,500 children.
The figures from the Department of Housing don’t include refugees, asylum seekers, women in refuge centres, or rough sleepers.
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan says “homelessness is solvable”, even as post-pandemic recovery gains have been essentially wiped out.
“It is not normal or acceptable and is due to nearly 10 years of poor policies and can be stopped over time by improved measures that are implemented quickly,” he said.
“The failures of successive governments have created a crisis where over 3,400 children will spend their days and nights in emergency accommodation.”
