Dublin Simon saddened to see a 36% rise with latest homeless figures

Government action is urgently needed to tackle homeless and housing crisis

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

The Dublin Simon Community today (13 April 2016) said that the number of people stuck in emergency accommodation in Dublin is increasing at an alarming rate. The leading homelessness charity said that the 32^nd Dail must, without any further delay, tackle the homeless and housing crisis before it gets even worse.

Today’s figures from the Department of the Environment show that the number of individuals experiencing homelessness in the capital has grown from 1,975 (February 2015) to 2692 for February of this year. That’s a 36% increase over 12 months in the capital.

The figures show that the number of children experiencing homelessness in Dublin grew at a shocking rate – from 803 in February 2015 to a shocking 1,616 this February. While the number of families increased by 112% from 371 to 790 in the same time.

The report also showed that there are currently 1,411 people trapped in Private Emergency Accommodation, 1,224 in Supported Temporary Accommodation and 71 in temporary Emergency Accommodation.

A breakdown of the homeless figures shows;

• There are 2,692 adults currently in emergency accommodation. 1482 of that total are male with the other 1210 are female.
• The number of families has increased by 112% from 371 to 790.
• 65% (517) of families are single parents with the other 35% of families are couples.
• Children have increased by 101%, with numbers growing from 803 to 1616 for one year period.
• During one night in November 2015, there were 152 people without a safe place to sleep in Dublin City.  This included 91 people sleeping rough and 61 people sheltering at the Nite Café.

Dublin Simon Community provides services to over 3,000 people in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and Meath who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.