Charities have warned that the latest rough sleeper count shows the Government is failing to tackle the homeless crisis.

Figures released last night showed 156 people sleeping on the streets of the capital.

The figure is down on last year's record high - but up 42% on the count last spring.

After the announcement, the Peter McVerry Trust said more needs to be done to combat the issue – while Inner City Helping Homeless said the Government is “clearly failing.”

Emergency beds

Inner City Helping Homeless CEO Anthony Flynn said if the Dublin suburbs were taken into account the figure would likely reach above 200.

“We have been telling the minister for months now that these figures are not reducing in any way shape or form; that we need access to beds on the ground in order to take rough sleepers off the streets,” he said.

“We are averaging ourselves 150 people per night that our teams are engaging with.

“The highest number we have got in the last two weeks was 179 people sleeping rough on the streets.

“This problem is not going away; it is worsening and we have not got the beds on the ground to put people into.”

Rough sleeper count

The latest count was carried out by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive alongside 10 volunteer organisations.

The found rough sleepers within:

• Dublin City Council: 121
• Fingal: 5
• Dun Laoghaire Rathdown: 7
• South Dublin: 12
• Dublin Parks: 11

Men made up two thirds of rough sleepers while 54% were Irish.

Peter McVerry Trust CEO Pat Doyle said the figures are “very disappointing.”

“In the last couple of weeks, the Trust, Focus Ireland and the DRHE were out trying to get as many people in [as possible],” he said.

“I think we ourselves got 24 people in, in the last two weeks – not because there was a count but because it is our job and because we need to get them in and people are vulnerable when they are out.

“But to see the number at 156, it is obviously very disappointing.”

Annual report

The Peter McVerry Trust is today publishing its annual report, which shows that it supported close to 5,000 people last year.

“The numbers have been growing over the last number of years with the national figures for homeless people,” he said.

“This year, we will do even more.

“Last year we said that we brought in over 100 new emergency beds and we wanted to make sure that going forward whatever we brought in, in relation to response for homelessness, it would include housing first apartments.”

Thousands of people took to the streets of Dublin over the weekend to protest the Government’s response to the crises in homelessness and housing.

The latest Government figures show there were 9,724 people in emergency accommodation last month – however the actual figure may be much higher as many more have ‘re-categorised’ out of the official count this year.