Sharp rise in the number of homeless children outside Dublin

There has been a sharp rise in the number of children living in emergency accommodation outside Dublin since Christmas, according to local authorities in Waterford, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Meath.

Waterford City and Council said three families with a total of three children were homeless in the last two weeks of December 2015, but in the same period in May that had grown to 13 families with 19 children.

A total of 83 children were homeless in Cork in the final weeks of May, compared with 60 in the same period five months earlier.

The number of households in Cork needing emergency shelter jumped from 25 at Christmas to 31 by the end of May, said Cork City Council.

A council audit in Cork on June 1st found the majority of children in homeless accommodation were between five- and 12-years-old.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request to officials in Galway show the council’s bill for emergency shelter for families was €27,146 in May, up from €17,735 last November.

Double

Galway City Council had to house 64 children in 24 families in late May, compared with 46 children in 19 families in late December.

In Limerick, from May 17th to 31st, 17 families, including 40 dependent children, accessed emergency accommodation – almost double the equivalent figure in early October.

The number of homeless families in Co Meath rose from 10 households with 25 children at Christmas, to 15 families with 36 dependent children in late May.

Meath County Council said its emergency accommodation options included up to 15 rented houses with rooms for short-term letting, 12 B&Bs and three hotels.

Six families were homeless in the extensive Tipperary County Council area on June 1st.

Modular homes

The council indicated it had availed of “11 hotels, hostels and B&Bs” in the county’s main towns for temporary housing.

“The rates paid to hotels and B&Bs would vary from €45 per person per night to €100 per person per night,” said Tipperary County Council in an FoI reply.

Separately, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) confirmed that tenants in new modular homes, near Ikea in Ballymun, pay a total weekly rent of €50.

This includes a €40 “accommodation charge” and €10 “for maintenance and waste collection”.

The initial estimate for the 22 temporary homes was €4.2 million, but the final “total cost” cannot be provided “until the accounts have been concluded”, said the DRHE.

The DRHE said, in an FoI response: “There are currently 22 families living in this development, comprising 31 adults and 79 children.”

Further detail on the tendering process for more modular housing in other parts of Dublin is expected to be announced shortly, said the DRHE.

The executive hasn’t received any complaints from residents about the scheme since it opened, after several delays, on May 6th.

Elsewhere, in Sligo, three couples and their 13 children sought emergency accommodation from the council from January to May.

Donegal County Council said two families needed emergency shelter from January to mid-June.

Nationwide, 2,177 children in 1,054 families were homeless in May.