Number of families in emergency accommodation continues to fall

Dublin City Council says it has welcomes latest figures showing the number of families in emergency accommodation continues to fall, but “acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

According to latest figures, there were 858 families in emergency accommodation at the end of October, the lowest monthly figure since March 2016.

The figure for September 2020 was 865, while the figure for January 2020 was 1,201.

The number of children in emergency accommodation at the end of October was 2,070.

This is an increase of 62 on the September figure.

Before this, the figure had been reducing steadily every month since September 2019 when the figure was 2,872.

At the end of October there were 246 families living in hotels.

This is a reduction of 32 from September and is the lowest figure since April 2015. The figure of 246 is broken down between contracted hotels (117) and accommodation sourced through self-accommodation (129).

The situation in relation to single persons is more complex according to a spokesperson.

“The total number of single adults in emergency accommodation has continued to increase, and in October this number reached 3,051,” they said.

“In recent months, we have successfully sourced additional emergency accommodation to cater for an increasing demand coming into the cold weather period.

“Currently there are a significant number of emergency beds unused each night.

“This has been the situation consistently over recent months.

“An increase in the overall supply of social housing is critical to addressing homelessness in the longer-term and is crucial in both preventing people from entering homelessness and exiting emergency accommodation.”