There's been a 3.5% percent increase in the number of people accessing emergency accommodation.
Figures for March from the Department of Housing show there were 9,825, up from 9,492 in February.
The total includes more than 2,800 children.
The official total from the Government doesn't include rough sleepers, women in refuge centres, Direct Provision or Ukrainian refugees in pledged accommodation.
In Dublin there are 4,886 homeless adults and 2,109 children.
We are very frustrated, but not surprised by the 4% increase in the number of people in emergency accommodation in Ireland. 78% of the country's homelessness is now concentrated in our catchment area of Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, Louth, Cavan & Monaghan.
— Dublin Simon (@Dublin_Simon) April 29, 2022
Caoimhe O'Connell, Spokesperson for Dublin Simon Community, says: "We are very frustrated, but not surprised by the increase in the number of people in Dublin emergency accommodation revealed today by the March 2022 Homeless Report.
"We acknowledge the Department and Local Authorities’ focus on the homeless and housing crisis, particularly progress on a youth homelessness strategy, prevention measures and Housing for All implementation, but unfortunately a number of factors have sped up the clock when we were already out of time.
"Homelessness is increasing month on month and based on this trend, we are fearful that we will soon exceed previous homeless records in the greater Dublin area before any real strategic implementation takes place.
"As the devastating war in Ukraine brings more and more people to our shores, refugees are now being settled into short term accommodation and homelessness NGOs across the sector are increasingly being called for assistance.
"In effect the homelessness crisis is worsening and critically, the Government now needs to acknowledge and address a number of issues; housing supply, short and medium term accommodation, homeless numbers rising while homeless charities continue to work in Covid-19 prevention control environments and refugees now being settled into short term accommodation.
"The need to increase housing supply is central while sufficient budget and human resources must be put in place as a matter of urgency."
"National Shame"
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan says: “While the number of families homeless fell during the pandemic, during the period when the Government banned no-fault evictions, the number of single people homeless continued to rise month after month during this time.”
“Hitting a new unprecedented level of over 5,000 single people in emergency homeless accommodation in March should be a moment of national shame and deep reconsideration. When homelessness was first described as a ‘crisis’ by a Government Minister in recent years there were around 2,000 single people homeless, so it is hard to find language which describes our current situation. Over the intervening years we have been much better at building new homeless shelters than we have been at building new social homes, and that must change.”
Focus Ireland says it is deeply concerned with the surge in rental costs with recent figures released by the Resident Tenancies board showing a 9% percent increase in new rents in the final quarter of last year, across just three months. As well as surging costs, the number of homes available to rent is continuing fall with landlords leaving the market.
CEO Pat Dennigan says: "Despite the number of landlords selling up, and evicting their tenants to do so, it is impossible to point to a single Government initiative which has sought to address this hugely damaging problem. Indeed, most Government initiatives have made it more difficult to be a landlord without making it any more secure to be a tenant."
