LATEST FIGURES FROM the Department of Housing have shown that there are more than 10,000 people homeless in Ireland for the seventh consecutive month.
The Department’s figures show that 10,338 people were in emergency accommodation in Ireland in August, including 6,490 adults and 3,848 children.
The figure is an increase of 63 people compared with July’s total, and represents the second-highest number of homeless people recorded in Ireland after April’s figures.
Charities and opposition TDs hit out at the Government for its ongoing response to the homeless crisis.
Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin called on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to demand more resources to tackle the problem ahead of Budget 2020.
“We need to stop these families becoming homeless and with the Budget coming up Minister Murphy and his counterpart in Fianna Fáil have the opportunity to demand more resources to build more public houses,” he said.
The Simon Communities in Ireland said that the figures should be a “call to action” for the Government ahead of the announcement of the Budget next week, and warned that Ireland risked seeing another winter of increased levels of homelessness.
Meanwhile, Inner City Helping Homeless described the additional 70 children who became homeless last month as “shocking”.
“Behind these numbers are human beings that need proper supports and homes to live in and they are being let down over and over again by the state,” the group’s CEO Anthony Flynn said.
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