Homeless charities have slammed the Government over its housing and homelessness policy after the latest figures revealed a further rise in the number of people accessing emergency accommodation.

A total of 9,724 were in emergency accommodation in October - an increase of 26 people compared to the September figures.

Last month's figures break down as 5,999 adults and 3,725 children.

In total, 1,709 families accessed emergency accommodation during October, down 44 compared to the previous month.

Officials also say the number of families presenting to homeless services in Dublin decreased for the third consecutive month.

NEW: Homeless figures for October. 26 more people in emergency accommodation. 44 less families and 104 less children that September numbers - but still 3,725 children in emergency accommodation in Ireland pic.twitter.com/fDXHDxCCKx

— Sean Defoe (@SeanDefoe) November 29, 2018

This afternoon a number of homeless charities criticised the Government over its failure to tackle the crisis.

Focus Ireland spokesperson Roughan Mac Namara said the slight month-on-month reduction means little when the figure has increased by 15% since this time last year.

“Fine Gael has been in Government for seven years now,” he said.

“We keep hearing it takes time. We are seven years in and the numbers are only going one way – up.

“A 15% rise in the numbers of homeless since this time last year just is not acceptable and it clearly shows that this is not the priority that the Government says it is for them.”

There has been a net increase of 1,232 people accessing emergency accommodation since October 2017, according to the new homelessness figures. pic.twitter.com/5zHg3kYj41

— Peter McVerry Trust (@PMVTrust) November 29, 2018

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said it is "totally unacceptable and wrong" that a new family is becoming homeless every eight hours in Dublin alone.

"This again shows that there will be no solution to the homeless crisis until the Government takes more serious measures to prevent families losing their homes," he said.

The charity is now calling for two major actions from the Government: the development of a specific family homelessness strategy, and a 'cast iron deadline' that nobody will be homeless for longer than six months.

Re-categorisation

Meanwhile, Anthony Flynn from Inner City Helping Homeless is calling for change in how the figures are compiled.

He observed: "When the minister says that it's important progress, what we're forgetting is that 1,600 people have been removed from the homeless list and are still under Section 10 funding through the minister's re-categorisation project.

"The minister can't stand independently over these figures - the Central Statistics Office should be moved in now, and we should be looking at somebody to come in and independently review these figures."

He said the Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has failed to make headway against the crisis adding, "what we need are proper social housing bills in order to reduce the number of families that are in emergency accommodation."

He warned that the Government's plans to make extra beds available through the Cold Weather Initiative on December 18th need to be brought forward. 

"Serious challenge"

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy acknowledged there are still too many families and children experiencing homelessness.

He said: "We still continue to face a serious challenge and we have to do more.

"Additional funding for family hubs and more social housing will help, and I continue to engage with the chief executives in the four Dublin local authorities to increase the number of successful outcomes in terms of preventing homelessness and moving families out of hotels."

He suggested: "The overall increase in people in emergency accommodation can partly be explained by new beds being provided to help take people from rough sleeping and in to our supported services." 

In September, the Department of Housing confirmed that 1,606 people were removed from its official homeless figures following three ‘re-categorisations’ this year.

Additional reporting Michael Staines