It has been revealed that over 2,560 children are without a home in Ireland, and living in emergency accommodation, which is the highest level of child homelessness ever recorded.
The official numbers were released last month by the Department of Housing, breaking all previous records of children living in emergency accommodation and on the streets.
The vast majority of young people affected by homelessness appear to be in Dublin, but there are a number of children living in B&Bs and emergency accommodation across the country.
Last month, Barnardos confirmed that over 5,000 people in Ireland were homeless, and it has now prevailed that over half of those people are, in fact, children.
June Tinsley, a spokesperson for the charity, said: “These ever-increasing figures are indicative of the housing crisis spiralling and deepening. It offers little hope that the Minister’s own target to ensure no homeless child will be living in a hotel by July 2017 will be met.
“Each monthly increase represents more children living in inappropriate accommodation, totally confused over what is happening to them and scared for their future. While their parents are struggling to cope with stress, uncertainty and feelings of inadequacy that is not of their own making or within their control to resolve."
Ms Tinsley added that, “These figures show that 83% of all homeless children are in Dublin where the availability of private rented accommodation or social housing is most limited. Many families are trapped in hotels for over a year.
“However, homelessness is not just a Dublin issue as many of the families we work with across our projects are having real difficulty in accessing alternative appropriate accommodation due to the lack of supply. This is leaving them in substandard and overcrowded homes.”
Housing dept publishes map with plan for 50,000 homes via @RTENewsNow https://t.co/iZCWsBUoMw
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) April 27, 2017
Despite the fact that there are not enough homes being build in this country, the Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney, has committed to ending the use of emergency accommodation, hotels and B&Bs in place of a more permanent housing scheme.
“Targets for new builds are too low and not being met and there is a continued over reliance on the private rented sector to increase supply. Efforts must be redoubled to keep families at risk of homelessness in their homes and prevent them from ending up in next month’s statistics.”
These figures are beyond concerning, and something must be done to get these children off the streets.
