Advertisement

Homeless figures show 9,652 people were in emergency accommodation in April

Updated 19.25 There were 9,652 people in emergency accommodation last month, according to the lat...
Newstalk
Newstalk

18.14 30 May 2018


Share this article


Homeless figures show 9,652 pe...

Homeless figures show 9,652 people were in emergency accommodation in April

Newstalk
Newstalk

18.14 30 May 2018


Share this article


Updated 19.25

There were 9,652 people in emergency accommodation last month, according to the latest homeless figures.

The April figures show a slight drop of 29 people compared to the March statistics.

Advertisement

However, the Department of Housing also says a number of cases have been 'corrected' after a 'categorisation issue' - suggesting 45 people in Meath and 252 in Dublin were in homes rather than in emergency accommodation.

It follows a similar correction last month, with the department saying some local authorities had overstated the numbers in emergency accommodation.

The latest numbers break down as 5,963 adults and 3,689 children.

Image: Department of Housing

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy acknowledged that moving people out of emergency accommodation remains a 'significant challenge'.

He explained: "I have said before that monthly reporting makes it difficult to identify any developing trends at an early stage, but from these figures it would seem that the presentation of new families in to emergency accommodation is stabilizing.

"That said, while the number of families in emergency accommodation is down this month, a small number of families with a large number of children did present, meaning that the number of dependents has risen by 43.”

He added that he plans to bring forward new proposals to address the housing crisis once a pair of reports on the situation are completed.

Reaction

Anthony Flynn CEO, Inner City Helping Homeless. Image: RollingNews.ie

The Inner City Helping Homeless group highlighted the 'correction' in the latest figures, suggesting "people [are] being removed without any proper explanation as to why".

CEO Anthony Flynn argued: "We are not seeing a realistic number regarding homelessness.

"If those removed from the figures were counted it would see the figures surge over the 10,500 mark."

He added: "Eoghan Murphy cannot continue to remove individuals as he pleases - these are real people.”


Share this article


Read more about

News

Most Popular