Homeless figures fell slightly in November - but remain above the 10,000 mark for the 10th month in a row.
The total number of men, women and children in emergency accommodation now stands at 10,448, according to figures released for November 2019 by the Department of Housing.
This is a drop of just 66 people from October and an overall increase of 5% from November 2018.
The Simon Communities of Ireland have said that while there is a welcome drop in family homelessness for the second month in a row, it is worrying that we saw 2019 coming to a close with almost 10,500 people in emergency accommodation.
Wayne Stanley, spokesman for Simon, says that while there are some positive signs in family homelessness, figures underline the work that will have to be done in 2020 in the area of housing and homelessness particularly for single people experiencing homelessness.
He said: “These number show that, there are almost 10,500 people in Ireland, including 3752 children, did not have a place to call home at the end of 2019.
“Unfortunately, these numbers do not even truly capture the full scale of this homelessness and housing crisis.
“These numbers do not include; rough sleepers and those in squats, people in direct provision and women’s shelters, and the ‘hidden homeless’ who have no home of their own.
“There has been strong collaboration between NGO’s, local authorities and government departments to try and alleviate the worst effects of this crisis, and we saw an encouraging drop in the number of rough sleepers recorded in the Official Winter Rough Sleeper Count for the Dublin Region in November, and a small reduction in the number of families in homeless in these figures.
“However, the overall number of people forced to access emergency accommodation continues to be enormously high, these figure show 5% growth in 12 months.
“We are particularly concerned that the number of single adults has increased by 14% (529 people) this year.
“We know that many find themselves in this position due to a lack of affordable and secure accommodation, particularly one and two-bedroom units.”
Inner City Helping Homeless CEO Anthony Flynn added: “Any decrease in the number of people accessing homelessness is welcome but the Ministers figures cannot be relied on.
“We need to have independent oversight on these figures. Such a small reduction just does not go far enough to tackle the ever growing crisis.
“The epidemic that is homelessness will worsen unless a proper social & affordable housing build program is implemented.
“The Minister's over reliance on the private sector to fix a social problem just is not working.”
