The number of people experiencing homelessness has surpassed 17,000 for the first time in the State\u2019s history, a 417% increase in those living in homelessness since 2014, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s figures show there were a record 17,112 people living in homeless emergency accommodation at the end of January. Shockingly, 5,319 of them are children, a devastating rise on December\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of progressing policy and legislation that would adequately address a crisis which has created dystopian conditions for a generation of renters and adults trapped in their childhood bedrooms, the government has introduced disastrous rental measures which will allow landlords to increase rents between tenancies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the run up to this measure being introduced on Sunday, we have seen a significant increase in the number of evictions – according to Department of Housing data, the main cause of homelessness is evictions from private rental sector landlords.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who\u2019ve been kicked out of their accommodation, the struggle for finding a suitable alternative will become even greater after March 1st – institutional investors, corporate landlords and vulture funds have publicly acknowledged that they will now be able to hike rents to even greater heights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government’s rental changes do nothing to protect the hundreds of thousands of renters who are in existing tenancies, who will still be subject to no-fault evictions – we will continue to see thousands of children in this country subjected to the trauma of homelessness, trauma that is utterly preventable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is only preventable, however, if the government has the compassion to put in place a ban on evictions, but it has shown that it has no interest in this necessary action – the coalition will implement emergency measures for investor funds, but it will not do so for the thousands of children and families who are homeless right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness services are at breaking point as emergency accommodation reaches capacity in countless towns and cities across the country – this means that countless people experiencing homelessness are not accounted for in these monthly figures, having slipped through the cracks in a system which is bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s past time Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael swallow their pride and listen to viable housing solutions, such as an immediate ban on evictions and the Social Democrats plans for state-led direct delivery of social and affordable housing via the Homes for Ireland savings scheme and a state construction company, rather than relying on the market, which will never deliver affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 27th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The number of people experiencing homelessness has surpassed 17,000 for the first time in the State\u2019s history, a 417% increase in those living in homelessness since 2014, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cToday\u2019s figures show there were a record 17,112 people living in homeless emergency accommodation at the end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12682,"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-16358","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