July saw yet another rise in Irish homelessness figures.
According to figures released by the Department of Housing, there were 9,891 people living in hotels, bed and breakfasts and family hubs in July, up from 9,872 people in June.
The figures consisted of 6,024 adults and 3,867 children.
This breaks the previous record, set in June of this year. The same figures also revealed that child homelessness rose 35% at the end of Housing Murphy’s Eoghan Murphy’s first full year in the post.
Murphy was interviewed on RTÉ Radio on Tuesday by Miriam O’Callaghan when he said that he believed policies he had in place were working, referencing the growing homeless crisis as “a very acute supply problem”.
Murphy said that he expected figures to rise from the June figure, saying that no matter the figure, the problem remains the same.
“While the numbers obviously are too high, hitting 10,000 doesn’t tell us anything that 9,000 didn’t tell us which is that we have a very serious crisis,” he told Miriam.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Murphy said: “The numbers presenting to homeless services in the Dublin region remains a concern, despite significant progress in exiting individuals and families from emergency accommodation into independent tenancies.”
He also added that a significant number of new homes are needed.
Both Sinn Féin and the Labour Party have revealed that they are considering tabling motions of no confidence in Murphy over his response to the worsening crisis.
Meanwhile, new Focus Ireland figures for Dublin show that four families became homeless every single day last month in the capital city.
In total 122 families with 270 children became newly homeless in Dublin in July.
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