Focus Ireland launched its No Child Without a Home campaign today, which aims to help drive work to end child homelessness. For good.
The campaign is asking people to add their name to a petition to government which outlines a 5-point plan that Focus Ireland maintains would significantly help efforts to tackle child homelessness.
The charity launched the campaign as figures issued last Friday show a new record number of 5,145 children are homeless – The number of children homeless has now shockingly risen by 135% in the last four years. *
Overall homelessness has risen from 8,212 to 16,353, an increase of 8,141 people (+99%) between Aug 2021 – Aug 2025.
Child homelessness has risen from 2,189 to 5,145, an increase of 2,956 children (+135%) in the same period.
Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said: “Every one of us has a right to a place we can call home yet there’s now a record total of over 16,350 people homeless. Focus Ireland is marking its 40th anniversary this year and sadly we have never seen it this bad. Homelessness is simply wrong and it’s the most vulnerable in our communities paying the price. Yet for decades the government has failed to build enough social and affordable housing to meet people’s needs. Homelessness destroys lives it hurts children the most.
He added: “We believe that ending homelessness is possible. Every day we’re helping people get back on their feet and into homes. But we can’t do it alone. That is why we are launching this campaign and asking people to sign up and support our 5-point plan and call on the Government to implement to help end child homelessness.” You can sign the petition at No Child Without A Home – Focus Ireland
The 5-point plan features these key actions, and the petition will be delivered to the Government later this year.
1. Stop No-Fault evictions into homelessness by funding the Tenant-in-Situ programme immediately.
2. Stop families being evicted because of unaffordable rents by increasing HAP rates to reflect market rents.
3. Build enough of the Right Homes in the Right Places.
4. Prioritise long-term homeless Families and Children for Social Housing.
5. Protect children by introducing a ‘Best interest of the child’ regulation for local authorities.
More details on these 5-points can be found on the petition website.
The campaign also features a hard-hitting short film/ad which shows the terrible emotional toll homelessness has on children which can be viewed at this link http://bit.ly/42jGhBv
Mr Dennigan concluded: “We hope that at least some – if not all – of our 5-point plan will be included in the Government housing and homelessness plan which is now due in October. We work in partnership with the State to tackle child and family homelessness and a lot of good work has been achieved but the constantly rising numbers homeless clearly show much more needs to be done.”