Government has given up on tackling homeless crisis, opposition says

16,766 people availed of homeless services across Ireland in October 2025, breaking the previous all-time record high.

The figure is on a par with the population of Leixlip, County Kildare.

The all-time record high figure has been multiple times across 2025, highlighting the government being unable to get a handle on the issue.

The figure is an increase from the previous set of figures of 16,614, which were published in late October.

8,141 of the overall national figure was in Dublin.

5,274 children were in homeless services across Ireland in October 2025.

The homeless crisis has plagued the last few governments; in 2018, then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar declared the crisis was an “emergency” when figures were sitting below 10,000 nationwide.

After the lifting of the no-fault eviction ban in March 2023, homeless figures, which had seen a sharp decline during that temporary measure, started to see a steady rise again and leading to the situation in 2025 where the all-time record high figures were broken multiple times in 2025.

The homeless figures do not account for “invisible homelessness,” which may include people sleeping on friends’ and families’ couches or sleeping in their cars.

Dublin Simon Community has warned that Ireland is closing 2025 without the coordinated housing, health, and social supports required to reduce numbers.

“With the winter already biting, people are again being left to survive in freezing conditions on the streets and unsecured accommodation. Many are fearful that the new housing plan will not reverse the trend of ever-increasing homelessness, but the record-breaking 16,766 people in emergency accommodation require immediate action,” a statement from the organisation read.

Catherine Kenny, CEO of Dublin Simon Community, said, “we are finishing the year almost exactly as we began, with homelessness rising, with emergency accommodation stretched to its limits and with people forced to sleep in the cold.”

“Nobody should be sleeping on the streets in Ireland in 2025. Nobody should be raising a child in a hotel room. And nobody should end another year without the basic security of a place to live. Housing is a basic human right – yet thousands have no certainty of a safe, warm place tonight or at Christmas.”

“In a country with Ireland’s resources, this should be unthinkable” she said.

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne noted on the day of the 2024 general election 14,996 were in homeless accommodation, with the figures in November 2025 standing at 16,766.

In that time, there has been a 13.5% increase in child homelessness since the election, a figure which Hearne dubbed “shocking.”

“Fianna Fail has held the housing portfolio for the past five and a half years. Fianna Fáil has had the power to do more than just hope for the housing crisis to improve, yet it continues to rehash variations on the same old housing plans that every dog on the street knows do not work,” the Dublin North-West TD said.

Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan stated, “the biggest cause of homelessness for families is landlords evicting them from private rented accommodation.”

Per Doolan, landlords evicting families from private rented accommodation accounts for 35% of all families entering homelessness.

Doolan also cited cuts to the Tenant in Situ scheme by the Minister for Housing James Browne as a major contributing factor to rising homeless figures.

“We are now reaping a very sorry harvest because of Minister Browne’s callous cuts to the Tenant In Situ scheme,” the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh councillor said.

“With each passing day the homeless crisis continues to deepen. There are consistently more families entering homelessness than exiting tenancies. We need an immediate and radical change in government housing policy.”