Figures released by the Simon Community show that things are getting worse for homeless people in the city.
Ireland’s homeless problem, in Dublin in particular, is getting worse.
Figures released by the Simon Community have showed a massive, 32% increase in the number of people sleeping rough on Dublin’s streets inside the last year.
More people are now homeless than in the city’s previous peak in 2014.
The Simon Community counted 168 rough sleepers in the middle of Dublin city centre on Monday night and another 60 people sleeping on the floor of the Merchant’s Quay Night Café.
That figure of 228 eclipses the previous record of 168 sleeping rough throughout the four Dublin local authority areas.
“We need more move on accommodation. We need to push on and make sure that anything that can happen, will happen,” Simon Community’s Sam McGuinness told Morning Ireland.
McGuinness said that the current numbers were “shocking” and is deeply alarmed at the lack of emergency beds in the city of Dublin. Simon’s annual report is due to be released on Tuesday and it states that only one in ten people have been moved from emergency accommodation into a home of their own in the last year.
While an extra 195 beds have been provided in Dublin since the death of Jonathan Corrie near Leinster House in December 2014, clearly a lot more needs to be done.
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