Dublin Simon Responds to Homeless Report for February 2022
The Department of Housing Local Government & Heritage today released the Homeless Report detailing the number of people accessing emergency accommodation services across Ireland in February 2022.
Responding to the rising figures in this months report, Pat Greene, Head of Policy & Volunteering at Dublin Simon Community said:
“Another month, another rise in the number of people in Dublin emergency accommodation for the ninth consecutive month, as trends point towards pre-pandemic levels.
“Rising rents and inflation are pushing more and more people into homelessness and the ongoing lack of social and affordable housing means that people are spending far longer than they should in emergency accommodation. In the last six months of 2021, for every three single people entering homelessness in Dublin, only one exited to housing. The trauma which stems from this is leading to all sorts of complications from physical health issues to relapses in addiction and the decline of mental health.
“Homelessness is a trap. Once you get in, it’s incredibly difficult to get out and you lose a bit of yourself every day that you spend there, making the challenge all the more insurmountable. As a society, we need to do better. We need to do more to keep people in their homes before it’s too late to find their way back.”