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A housing charity says the long-term trend shows that the homeless crisis is getting worse.<\/p>\nA housing charity says the long-term trend shows that the homeless crisis is getting worse.<\/p>\n
New figures released yesterday show a slight drop in the number of people in emergency accommodation in December, down by 215 to 9,753.<\/p>\n
Focus Ireland has welcomed the decrease but says the number of people homeless actually increased last year.<\/p>\n
Spokesperson for the charity, Roughan McNamara, does not believe we are turning a corner in tackling homelessness.<\/p>\n
“The overall trend shows the crisis is still deepening,” said Mr McNamara.<\/p>\n
“If we go back to December 2017, there has been a massive jump of 14% in the numbers homeless since then. So the overall trend is upwards.<\/p>\n
“We strongly believe the government needs to change their policy and deliver more social housing to end this crisis.”<\/p>\n
Mr McNamara said he fears the figures may rise again in the coming months.<\/p>\n
“There is a seasonal trend over the years that less people present as homeless because families may take people in over the holiday period.<\/p>\n
“It would be a short-term arrangement – relationships break down or there simply isn’t room for them and they go back into homelessness.<\/p>\n
“So there is an annual spike in the numbers in January and February.”<\/p>\n