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LAST UPDATE | 31 Mar 2023
THE NUMBER OF people in homelessness has dropped slightly, with 11,742 people accessing emergency accommodation last month.
This is the first time in eight months that homelessness figures have dropped.
It comes as the Government’s winter eviction ban is due to end tomorrow, with opposition TDs saying that homelessness will spike further following the decision to lift the ban.
Figures from the Department of Housing detail how there were 8,369 adults and 3,373 children in emergency accommodation last month.
The figures are a drop of 12 compared to last month, where there were 11,754 people in emergency accommodation.
Sinn Féin has stated that the slight drop in homelessness figures indicates that the Government’s eviction ban “was working”, and called for the decision to lift it to be reversed.
Eoin Ó Broin, the party’s spokesperson on housing, said: “What these figures show is that the ban on no fault evictions was having a positive impact, stabilising the number of people in emergency accommodation.
“Despite this, the government is determined to end this crucial protection for renters today.
“Thousands of households are now at risk of losing the roof over their heads and the government still cannot answer one simple question – where are people to go?”
Labour Leader, Ivana Bacik said that the levels of homelessness in the country are “shameful”.
Bacik further said that plans “cobbled together” by the Government to protecter renters “at the 11th hour” are “doomed to fail”.
She was referencing plans to give renters first refusal to purchase their rented home if they are facing eviction, which would be similar to a scheme operated in France.
“As responses to Parliamentary Questions put down by me reveal, Government has no plan in place for this measure and, even if they did, the majority of renters are simply not in a position to purchase a home given the astronomical rents they are being charged,” Bacik said.
Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan said that today’s figures showed that homelessness levels in Ireland had “finally stabilised” after 13 months of increases.
“Homeless services are operating beyond capacity, rents are skyrocketing and there are thousands of people competing for a handful of rental properties around the country.
“The eviction ban must be extended or there will be a further spike in people becoming homeless,” he said.
Wayne Stanley, Executive Director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said that the slight decline in homeless figures shows that the eviction ban worked.
“While a reduction of 12 people in emergency accommodation in the context of almost 12,000 is small, it is incredibly welcome,” he said.
“What these figures suggest is that the moratorium, was doing its work, particularly for families, and keeping people out of homelessness.
“Unfortunately, it’s ending today but had it continued and the State taken action to step up initiatives to prevent and address homelessness, there was the potential to make some real and sustained progress.”
The CEO of Dublin Simon Community, Catherine Kenny claimed the monthly figure would “swell rapidly” from today after the eviction moratorium is lifted.
“8,588 people found themselves in emergency accommodation in Dublin in February, and that number is set to swell rapidly from today,” she said.
“We are at a tipping point in our national history. How we approach the months ahead will determine our cultural attitudes and commitment to solving and addressing homelessness.”
She added that issues with the delivery of housing had left thousands of people homeless, and said that homelessness should “never be the accepted outcome of eviction”.
Focus Ireland also pointed to the lifting of the eviction ban as a failure, saying that homeless services would continue to struggle to cope with rising homelessness as a result.
“Nothing has changed since the eviction ban was introduced since November and lifting it will do nothing to allay fears for landlords as they are selling up in vast numbers because of high taxation and market uncertainty,” a spokesperson for the charity said.
“We expect to see more terminations from landlords who have been unsettled by the Government’s stop-start approach to this issue.”
-Additional reporting by Eimer McAuley.
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Probably 12 deceased people
@LL Cool Jim: sadly true.
@LL Cool Jim: Exactly my thoughts.
@LL Cool Jim: we had 250,000 surplus houses in NAMA before they were sold off for a song to vulture funds. We the plebs were denied access to these at affordable prices because FGFF NAMA packaged it up into €1bn+ parcels to exclude the great unwashed that is the Irish people, whilst the Vulture pay Zero income or Capital Gains tax and drive rents through the roof.
Time to repay them at the next election and don’t vote for FGFFLAB or Independents – I hope for a SF landslide and tax the daylights out of the HF, 70% Capital Gains and Income tax and watch property market correct itself, we are not NY or London or Tokyo yet our property and rents are priced accordingly – time for a big reset
@Steve Bell: no homeless in NI or other countries then?
@James Gorman: yawnnnnnnnnnn
I only know that things south of the border will never change and only get worst if we keep re-electing these FGFFLab and Independent gob shi* es.
@James Gorman: don’t know, why don’t you educate how many people up north are homeless ?
I suspect emergency spaces exist up north?
House prices and rents are a fraction of prices south of the Border… same island.. go figure
@James Gorman: research on the internet Jimmie ..but what would prompt you to ask that Jimmie when the subject is in the disaster of a housing emergency in the 26 counties… you some kind of daw or what .
A whole 12 people & these figures they quote are completely fabricated. There is far more than 12k people homeless in Ireland and more to follow.
@Allora: if you read the article you should have picked up that the figures relate to the numbers in emergency accommodation. So it doesn’t include people sleeping rough along the canals or couch surfing.
@Allora: https://www.feantsa.org/download/article-1-33278065727831823087.pdf
The recognised criteria for homelessness has 13 criteria. FFG implement only 3 of them. So the figures they publish are doctored and hide the true extent of the crisis. Even after doing that they can’t solve the issue.
@M Bowe: Recognised by who? The term homeless used to mean someone sleeping on the street. It still does to most people
@Mick Duvanny: read the link. A home is a safe secure place to live, sofa surfing, temporary accommodation etc is not a home.
@Mick Duvanny: FFG do NOT include those sleeping on streets in their falsified figures.
@Mick Duvanny: you mean thats what it meant to you. I think you might need a new software update.
@Ciaran O’Mara: still not accurate.
@Allora: How so?
@Gavin Conran: because the figures are being manipulated by government departments just lije they do with all these figures.
Just your friendly reminder that the figure of 11, 742 doesn’t cover refugees, asylum seekers, adults living in their family home, couch surfers, people sleeping on the streets, women in shelters or anyone availing of HAP or RAS (introduced as rents in Ireland are unaffordable for most people) – the figure of 11, 742 only reflects those people who were homeless, presented to the Council & were placed in “emergency accommodation”. The TRUE figure is likely to absolutely atrocious.
But hey, Leo & the media love to keep that spin going eh?!
@Greachán Ó Ceallaigh: don’t think you can class “adults living in family home” or people on HAP as homeless!!
@Andrew Lavelle: at what age did you leave family home, have you a partner and kids. Are your parents elderly. No adult should be. Forced to live at home long after they due to fly the nest. Especially not forced to due to government policy which prioritises foreign investment profits over it’s citizens.
@M Bowe: still not homeless, no matter what way you spin it. How many of them are “forced”?
A whole 12 people? Fantastic achievement by the gubmint yet again
12 people.. hardly worth reporting!!
The calm before the storm!
What the hell the journal running with a headline like that ,12 less homeless !!!..In the name of God ,do the journal really believe that the true numbers in Homelessness are the one provided ,are the journal not aware of the Thousands of people couch surfing ,living with parents ect ect who are not counted as in Homelessness, is this a cynical article by the Journal in order to “support” the government line that their absolute disastrous housing policy is “working ” ..Get real Journal, talk about “sweets” , Disgusted with that article..
@jim dee: it’s designed to make you emotional so you engage and give them more clicks. Mission accomplished.
@Sean McCarthy: just ignore , you
120,000 people immigrated to Ireland last year. A 15 year high per CSO numbers. Did the irish Government have housing built for this rather large amount of people? Take a wild guess!
@Paulco: it’s okay, due to the current state of emergency the government has suspended the law of supply and demand, so anyone claiming that immigrants create an increased demand for limited supply are merely ists of some sort spreading the dreaded disinformation.
@Paulco: net immigration last year was closer to 60,000. Up from 11000 in 21. Mainly due to Ukrainian situation.
What a coincidence that these statistics would happen to be published the same day the eviction ban is lifted!
O’Brien must have been on the blower to The Journal first thing.
You will have nothing, and you will be happy! It’s well at play in Ireland.
I don’t know why they don’t build trailer parks like in the states,that would surely solve the housing crisis?
@Josh Hartnett: People will complain about living in such a ‘kip’.
2004 home ownership high was at 81.8%
2023 home ownership 67%
Can you figure out the trend? You really think it will stop going in a certain direction?
@Paulco: what direction?
Lads, April Fools Day is tomorrow, not today.
So in otherwords a -0.1% decrease. Shameful.
If you are going to use 12 people to call it a reduction in the homeless figures, then the entity issuing these figures and the media outlets reporting them have a duty to investigate exactly what happened in each of these 12 cases and report that in detail.
@David Van-Standen: I would imagine there are a lot more than 12 that got housed but then others became homeless over the reporting period. It’s not the same 12,000 homeless the whole time.
@The next small thing: That’s definitely possible, but we are still talking about a very small number of people, so a detailed descriptions of how the people that left the homeless figures did so and how those that became homeless arrived in that situation, is not a lot to ask…
Because for the majority of this approximately 12000 people nothing whatsoever change in their circumstances.
12, lol
What a pointless article.
Fake news. Legal evictions take 17 months or more. There’s no tidal wave of evictions coming.
We have a deadbeat tenant overholding by 20 months and not paying rent.
RTB orders ignored.
Now have to go to District Court to get this dirty scrounger out.
@Paul: I thought for a tenant to claim a valid overhold, they had to continue to pay the rent?
@The Bolt: I think in Paul’s case he is highlighting the length of time and costs with removing a rogue tenant, nothing to do with the eviction ban. No wonder landlords are leaving the market with carry on like that tenant.
@The next small thing: Being honest with you, I think rogue tenants aren’t the main reason landlords are leaving the market. The vast majority are leaving due to tax and uncertainty. For small landlords, the returns don’t justify the hassle.
0.1 % in or around
Paid article
Ah come on 12 people a waist of time putting the article up but it’s something
Climate change is happening faster then the Government’s response to homelessness. We are paying for Climate change, they get paid for causing a housing disaster! Embarrassing!
Theurinal.ie
I’m just wondering if the TD’s who voted to end the eviction ban will be offering information on emergency accommodation from their constituency offices? This is an honest question. The people who are becoming homeless have no idea what to do or where to go, yet the politicians in the sound bytes seem to know exactly what they should do. Has anyone got any clarification or ideas on this?
Trailer parks on an industrial scale are coming, I would theorise. We live in Europe (kind of), but our future is American.
How do they pluck the numbers. 70k + Ukrainian people in emergency accommodation, I’ve no idea how many in DP plus these 12k AND those homeless staying with friends and family temporarily.
@Franciswhotenail: Monty Python’s Flying Circus?
It’s
Strange thing. These are the lucky ones.
Who’s living in mosney? Isn’t that a trailer park?
Jaysus
Housing is very closely related to dignity. So many people’s dignity have been obliterated by the humiliation of being treated like cattle. Ireland is a rich country? LOL
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