‘A deepening crisis’: Number of homeless children increased by 10% in the last year

The number of homeless children has increased by 10 per cent in the past year, according to the latest report from the Department of Housing.

The figure rose from 3,267 in January 2018 to 3,624 last month, and there were 65 more children homeless in January compared with December 2018.

The number of people now living in homeless accommodation in Ireland has reached a record of just under 10,000;  6,363 adults and 3,624 children.

Focus Ireland has said the Government are failing to tackle the “deepening crisis.”

@FocusIreland said the new record total of 9987 people homeless shows that Govt. policy is still failing to tackle the deepening crisis. We believe the Govt must make a greater shift away from delivering homeless hubs and towards providing increased level of social housing. pic.twitter.com/q5dAfEj7Mq

— Focus Ireland (@FocusIreland) February 27, 2019

They warned there’s “a real danger that the short term fix of homeless hubs will become a long-term situation” with over 40% of families homeless in Dublin in emergency accommodations over a year.

The latest figures from the Department of Housing also show there were 9,987 people in emergency accommodation during the week of January 21st to 27th. Among these were 1,614 families and 4,104 single adults.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said in a statement that the rise was “very disappointing.”

“It is very disappointing and we remain in a very difficult situation where homelessness is heavily impacting on the lives of families and individuals,” he said.

“There was a decrease of people in emergency accommodation in December, which we understood at the time to be partly due to seasonal reasons, and so an increase in January was anticipated but that doesn’t mean it is acceptable.”

Government & Council are Failing in providing adequate and sufficient housing supplies in order for the crisis to be tackled. #Homeless pic.twitter.com/r7g5eB2f96

— Anthony Flynn (@AnthonyICHH) February 27, 2019

Anthony Flynn, CEO of Inner City Helping Homeless, has called for the establishment of a task force on homelessness, according to the Irish Times.

Main photograph: Unsplash