Homelessness charity Focus Ireland has warned that 1,800 homeless children are struggling in school.

 

The charity is urging the Government to deliver a special package of supports for homeless children, and the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation (INTO) are backing their calls.

 

The public has also backed their pleas, with 561 emails sent to Education Minister Richard Bruton, calling for action to help these vulnerable young children, according to The Irish Sun.

 

Focus Ireland say that precarious living situations such emergency accommodation mean children are arriving at school “showing the physical and psychological impact of having to live in hotel rooms”.

 

The charity revealed that: “Teachers are witnessing children who are struggling in class due to a lack of sleep, a lack of healthy food, and the damaging impact of having no space to do their homework or to play.”

 

 

Child homelessness in Ireland hit record highs earlier this year, with almost 3,000 children now without a home.

 

In June of this year, 1,365 families with 2,895 children were staying in emergency accommodation. There were 118 more children homeless than in May.

 

68 percent of homeless people are living in Dublin, where there is a severe shortage of rental properties and rents have soared.

 

The majority of homeless families were in the Dublin area, with 1,115 families presenting as homeless there.

 

Last year, a primary school teacher made the heartbreaking revelation that his pupils need to sleep during the day because they aren’t getting adequate sleep in emergency accommodation.

 

Speaking at the 2016 INTO Congress, TJ Clare, a second class teacher in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, said that he fears at least half of the children in his class are at risk of homelessness due to worsening rent conditions.

 

 

"They come in shattered. Do you allow them to sleep? Yes, as a teacher, you take responsibility," he said, before going on to describe the conditions these kids are living in.

 

Another teacher, Gregory Kerr, said he worried about the mental health implications his young pupils faced due to homelessness.

 

"School becomes their refuge, the only constant. We encourage the child to keep up their homework, not least because it’s good for them to keep a routine,” he said.

 

It’s a horrendous shame that these children are suffering so much; they are missing out on the stability of a safe home, and now their education is being affected, also.

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