Today\u2019s record homeless numbers are a direct result of failed Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael policies, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne made his comments as a new record high for homelessness was confirmed this afternoon:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s figures show there were 15,747 people living in homeless emergency accommodation at the end of May. Shockingly, 4,844 of them are children. These record numbers are a shameful milestone for a government that continues to deprioritise homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese numbers are the direct result of policy choices made by the government. This is what happens when you do not protect vulnerable renters, or prevent them from becoming homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore today\u2019s record, since 2016, 16,385 children have entered into homelessness in Dublin – this represents 75% of all child entrants into homelessness in Ireland, with approximately 22,000 people in emergency accommodation nationally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state could be facing a national redress scheme for children who have been in emergency accommodation – the government knows the deeply damaging impact any length of time in homelessness has on young people, yet it is not doing everything it can to prevent children from becoming homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese abject failures are intolerable and inexcusable \u2013 rising levels of homelessness will continue to outpace any social and affordable housing delivery from the State unless there is a radical shift in government policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFailing to take an interventionist approach in coordinating a national emergency response to homelessness across all local authorities, destroying the Tenant in Situ Scheme, and ending rent caps as we knew them have collectively pushed more and more people into homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese numbers are real families and real children experiencing serious trauma day in and day out \u2013 their plight cannot be ignored any longer. The figures don\u2019t even capture the true scale of homelessness \u2013 there are tens of thousands of people living in hidden homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government must reverse its proposed rental increase measures and maintain rent caps between tenancies, and extend the no fault evictions ban to all tenancies.\u201d<\/p>\n
27th June, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s record homeless numbers are a direct result of failed Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael policies, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne made his comments as a new record high for homelessness was confirmed this afternoon: \u201cToday\u2019s figures show there were 15,747 people living in homeless emergency accommodation at the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[663,10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homelessness","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n