From top: Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe; Latest family homless figures
Yesterday evening.
The Department of Housing published the homeless figures for October.
They show there were 5,999 adults, 1,709 families and 3,725 children – a total of 9,724 individuals – staying in State-funded emergency accommodation in the final week of October.
This means the number of adults accessing emergency accommodation has increased by 133, the number of families has decreased by 44 and the number of children has also decreased by 104.
The official Department of Housing homeless figures do not include the number of people who are sleeping rough across Ireland.
This morning.
On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland…
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe was asked about the latest homeless figures and he said they represented “a great personal challenge” for everyone in Government and it’s something they know “they need to do better on and we challenge ourselves every day to see how we can do it”.
He added:
“I know what the new figures are for the number of people who are homeless. I’m aware of the fact that we’re above 10,000. As against that, we have additional money going this year into our homeless hubs, homeless services and, next year, we’ll be spending the highest amount we ever have on housing.
“We are seeing more homes being built, we’ll deliver around 18,000 to 19,000 homes this year and I’ve made available a further €60million towards the end of this year to invest in services. It’s something that is a really solemn responsibility for us all on, to do better on and we’re working to do that.”
Listen back in full here
