Number of homeless children double to over 1,600 in past year

The number of homeless children in Dublin has doubled in the last year according to latest figures released on Tuesday.

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive reports 1,616 children in emergency accommodation in the capital during a week’s sample between February 22nd and 28th. That figure compares to 803 for a comparable period in 2015.

In the same sample, 790 families were recorded as homeless compared to 371 last year.

"The figures released today show what Depaul is seeing every day in our Dublin services – increasing numbers of families and children becoming homeless due to the housing crisis," the charity's chief executive Kerry Anthony said.

Emergency

Of last month’s numbers, 581 families including 1,201 children were living in hotel accommodation while 209 families including 415 children were in other types of homeless accommodation.

“This situation has reached emergency status and we call upon the new government to act on this issue immediately,” Depaul said in a statement.

“A dynamic and robust national housing plan that delivers on its housing commitments, addresses increasing demand and unaffordability in the private rental sector, and prioritises the prevention of homelessness by increasing rent supplement limits and tenure security is long overdue.”

In August of last year Depaul said it and other homeless agencies were calling for immediate action on the crisis situation.

At that time there were 607 families including 1,275 children homeless in Dublin. Six months later, the number of families has risen by 30 per cent and the number of homeless children by 27 per cent.