Government making homeless crisis worse, opposition says, as figures hit 17,000

Over 17,000 people were availing of homeless accommodation in Ireland in January, the highest figure since records began.

17,112 people were confirmed to be in homeless accommodation by the Department of Housing in the most recent round of figures.

The figure is an increase from the 16,734 people figure for December 2025.

Of the figures, 12,198 people were homeless in Dublin.

With the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 general election having just passed, Sinn Féin TD and housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said that since the 2016 general election, more than 55,000 adults have been forced into homelessness.

He noted that the figure does not include children or those in emergency accommodation funded by other government departments or those who receive no government funding.

The Dublin Mid-West TD noted that the true number of homeless people in Ireland is above 20,000, as the likes of “invisible homelessness” are not taken into account.

O’Broin further noted that 55,000 is more than the entire population of County Longford, more than the population of Ireland’s largest town, Drogheda, and enough to fill out the Aviva stadium.

The Sinn Féin housing spokesperson placed the blame squarely at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s feet.

Since the current government took office in January 2025, homeless figures have increased by 12%, and child homelessness has increased by 16%.

“How many more people will be forced into homelessness before Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael realise that it is their housing policies that are driving this crisis and that until these policies change the problem will continue to get worse?” he asked.

“Sinn Féin, the Housing Commission and others have set out what a radical reset of housing and homeless policy looks like. But until the government accepts these alternatives, the homelessness crisis will continue to get worse,” he warned.

The temporary introduction of no-fault evictions in late 2022 saw a pronounced drop in homeless figures, with the figure dipping below 12,000; the lifting of the ban in March 2023, in controversial circumstances, directly coincided with a rise in homeless figures since then.”

Social Democrats TD and housing spokesperson Rory Hearne called the figures “dystopian,” saying “the government’s rental changes do nothing to protect the hundreds of thousands of renters who are in existing tenancies, who will still be subject to no-fault evictions – we will continue to see thousands of children in this country subjected to the trauma of homelessness, trauma that is utterly preventable.”

“It is only preventable, however, if the government has the compassion to put in place a ban on evictions, but it has shown that it has no interest in this necessary action – the coalition will implement emergency measures for investor funds, but it will not do so for the thousands of children and families who are homeless right now,” the Dublin North-West TD said.