“WHEN YOU GET into the bed first, it’s fucking very hot,” said John, an older man who has been homeless since his house burned down a little over a year ago.

John said that by the time he walks across the city from the homeless services he visits to the doorway he sleeps in, he is “sweating like a pig”. 

“I’m lucky, I’ve got three sleeping bags, and I lie on them, as the night gets colder, I put another sleeping bag over me. But it’s fucking hot when you get into it,” he added.

Last month was Ireland’s driest July on record, and one of the sunniest months ever recorded here. Successive warnings issued by Met Éireann advised people to keep cool to avoid heatstroke, but for homeless people, keeping cool isn’t easy.

It was a humid 22 degrees as The Journal spoke to John on the steps outside the Lighthouse homeless café – one of several organisations in Dublin city centre providing emergency supports. 

Ireland’s rare solar eclipse was happening above our heads, and in the long line of people queuing for food and water on Pearse Street, a man passed around a pair of eclipse glasses so everyone could get a look at the sky.  

Inside the café, it was just as busy as outside. Three fans operated on full blast as guests sat down to escape the heat and the kitchen delivered plates of chicken curry and rice.

John said he came to Dublin from the countryside to have greater access to homeless services like the Lighthouse – something especially important during summer to shelter from the sun. 

His day usually starts at 6am when staff arrive to open the shop he took shelter in front of the previous night. From then on, John said it’s just about finding ways to “pass the fucking time”.

He said the number of people he has seen sleeping rough and availing of homeless services is growing “all the time”.

Homelessness levels first passed 17,000 at the start of 2026 and hit a record high of 17,548 during the month of April.

According to the latest figures from the Department of Housing, 11,862 adults and a record 5,620 children were accessing emergency accommodation in June.

John said he tried to access emergency accommodation, but there was rarely availability. Now he’s decided it’s a “waste of time” even trying.

As we spoke, someone John had met a few days ago called him and said he might have a bed for him for the night.

“A bed’s a bed John, get in out of this,” Robbie, the team leader at the Lighthouse, advised.

‘In here they’re a person’

Robbie (left) preparing hot dinners alongside other workers at the Lighthouse.

Robbie first became involved with the café as a service user. Now, after 33 years of heroin addiction and sleeping rough, he is celebrating eight years drug free, and helping others in positions he once experienced. 

“We’re like a family in here, there’s no differentiation, that’s why I love it here. You’re a human. You need help. We’re gonna help you,” Robbie said. 

“It’s helping us being able to just sit and listen to someone and not judge them. For a lot of homeless people, it would be just acknowledging them, because they’re not acknowledged. People pass by them all day. In here they’re a person.”

In the three and a half years he has worked at the Lighthouse, Robbie said the number of people using the service has quadrupled, with people from “all walks” of life visiting.

At the moment, Robbie said over 600 people visit the café daily, and staff prepare around 700 hot dinners and takeaway meals.

The service also provides haircuts, groceries, clothes and products like sunscreen – something Robbie said has been flying off the shelves this summer.

“We’ve had I don’t know how many requests for cream and sprays. We got a load and they’re gone. As quick as they come in, it’s as quick as they’re gone,” he said.

Robbie said the other thing guests have been in need of is water, adding that consumption has been so high staff refill the jug within minutes of putting it out.  

‘Safe place’

Service users can also get a clean change of clothes and a haircut at the Lighthouse.

Emma, who has been homeless with her two teenage children since being evicted from their home by a county council in November, visits the Lighthouse daily to avail of services, socialise and get out of the heat of the emergency accommodation family hub she now lives in.

“We’re living in the attic. It’s very, very hot. The window is so small that it does get very hot in there,” she said.

Emma said she has one small fan for herself and her kids, and has requested another, but she hasn’t had any luck yet.

“The heat inside the hostels does be worse [than outside] sometimes,” she said.

However, she feels the most for people sleeping rough. “I do be looking at people out there in their tents, and I’d say they must be fucking sweating in them,” she added.

After months visiting the Lighthouse, Emma said the people here have become her family, and she is now trying to become a volunteer to give back.

As we spoke, several service users stopped to greet Emma, and volunteers offered us tea and coffee. 

“Nobody will look at you in a judgmental way here, and everybody’s so honest, and that’s what I love about it. You can just relax and nobody looks at you any way different. They’ve helped me out a lot,” Emma said.

“You need to have a safe place to come to chill out and to relax, and this is mine.”

A poster on display inside the café.

A service user who has been homeless for eight years and wished to remain anonymous said that without emergency supports “you’d be bolloxed” in the heat.

He said it’s been too hot to use a tent recently, instead he sleeps rough “here, there and everywhere”.

“This heat is very intense, especially when you’re an alcoholic,” he said, explaining that he becomes easily dehydrated.

“You try and stay out of the sun as much as you can”.

However, he said the advantage of the summer is that people sleeping rough don’t have to worry about the rain. 

“The rain’s the worst, no matter what situation you’re in, as long as you’re fucking dry, you’ll get through it. But waking up soaked in the morning and it’s to the bone, it’s very tough,” he said.

Another service user, Phil, also said that sleeping outside is “a little bit” easier during the summer as it’s dry, but he would prefer to be in emergency accommodation.

“The biggest thing is trying to access emergency accommodation, because you need an address, you need a job, payslips. But then you’re not going to get those if you haven’t got somewhere to stay and you can’t function,” he said. 

In the two and a half months he has been living homeless, Phil said he hasn’t managed to spend one night in emergency accommodation.  

During the day, he visits services like the Lighthouse “anytime it’s open” to access shelter.