150 CHILDREN in the Mid West were accessing emergency accommodation in the last week of June this year.
This is according to new figures released in the Government’s June Monthly Homeless Report, which showed that 89 families, with a total of 150 children, across the Mid West accessed emergency accommodation in the week from June 19 to 25.
The report also showed a national increase of 1.3 per cent in the amount of people accessing emergency accommodation on the previous month.
The report shows that there are now 12,600 people nationwide accessing emergency accommodation.
Among the 89 families in the Mid West who were using emergency accommodation, 63 of them were single parent families.
The report also showed that there were 405 adults in the Mid West in need of emergency accommodation over the same week in June.
Of the 405 adults, 240 were men and 165 were women.
When broken down by county, 344 homeless adults were in Limerick, while the remaining 61 were in County Clare.
Nationally there were 3,765 children and who accessed emergency accommodation with their families during the last week of June.
Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, said that the Government were committed to tackling the persistently high numbers of those seeking emergency accommodation.
“Unfortunately we have seen an increase in the numbers of people in emergency accommodation. The situation is very challenging but the Government, local authorities, and those in our NGO sectors are working together and making every effort to reduce homelessness. Tackling this issue is a Government priority,” the Minister said.
“We know that increasing the supply of new homes, particularly social and affordable homes, is key to tackling homelessness.”
Minister O’Brien continued: “CSO figures show 14,017 homes were completed in the first six months of 2023, a 5.8 per cent increase on the same period in 2022 and the highest number of completions recorded for the first half of any year since the CSO data series began in 2011.”
Nationally, the majority of reasons for people presenting as homeless were given as ‘relationship or family circumstances’ (28.2 per cent), and ‘notice of termination’ (28.8 per cent).
