Child homelessness has increased by almost a fifth since last year as numbers in emergency accommodation reach another record high, now standing at 17,517.
Latest data from the Department of Housing, published on Friday, shows the number of children in emergency accommodation is now more than 5,500.
The figures, for the week of March 23rd to 29th, show there were 11,946 adults and 5,571 children in 2,659 families in emergency accommodation. Of these families, 1,525 (57.4 per cent) were headed by single parents.
The figures were described as “unconscionable” and indicative of “suffering across the country” by housing charities.
The number of children in emergency accommodation has increased from 4,675 in March 2025 – an increase of 19.1 per cent.
Among homeless adults, 7,445 (62.3 per cent) were single and homeless alone.
The total is 209 more than were recorded as homeless in February and represents a 13.6 per cent increase in a year. In March 2025 there were 15,418 people in emergency accommodation.
None of these figures includes people who are sleeping rough, sofa-surfing, sharing overcrowded accommodation, in domestic violence refuges or stuck in direct provision accommodation despite having been granted leave to remain in Ireland and entitled to social housing supports.
In Dublin, where the crisis is most acute, 12,465 people were homeless last month, including 8,347 adults and 4,118 children in 1,866 families. Of these, 1,020 (54 per cent) were headed by single parents.
Of the adults, 5,032 (60 per cent) were single and homeless alone.
Pat Dennigan, chief executive of Focus Ireland, called for families and single people who have been long-term homeless to be prioritised for social housing.
The charity, which published a five-year strategy on Wednesday, said it aimed to deliver 1,000 new homes and strengthen its supports to families.
Catherine Kenny, chief executive of Dublin Simon Community, urged “those in power” to “recognise the scale of suffering across the country”.
She said: “This crisis has been allowed to spiral out of control … Be it the increases in notices of termination from those in private rental sector, or the number who are voluntarily leaving the direct-provision system, the Government’s own policies are driving people towards emergency accommodation.
“A few strokes of a pen have taken roofs from over people’s heads.” People “in power” must recognise “the consequences of their actions”, she said.
The Simon Communities described the new record as “unconscionable”.
Executive director Ber Grogan said: “We are seeing clear warning signs in the rental sector, with eviction notices rising by 45 per cent in recent months, affecting hundreds more households, including those relying on supports like Hap [housing assistance payment].
“We are now watching the effects of that pressure unfold in real time. More people are losing their homes, and more people are being pushed into homelessness.”
Housing needed to be treated as a public good, she said.
“We need to see action on prevention, and we need accelerated delivery of one-bed, social and cost-rental homes, targeted supports for single adults on low incomes, and a rebalancing of housing allocations to ensure that individuals without dependents have a roof over their head.”
Rory Hearne, Social Democrats housing spokesman, said Government housing policies were a “leading contributor” to the crisis.
He said rent regulations introduced in March, which introduced rent increase caps of 2 per cent and tenancies of minimum six-year duration, had “incentivised landlords across Ireland to evict their tenants”.
Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin spokesman on housing, said a contributory factor to increasing homelessness was inadequate funding for schemes such as the tenant-in-situ programme where local authorities can purchase homes for sale when the sitting tenant qualifies for social housing supports, to continue letting it to that household as a council tenant.
