THE OVERALL number of people in Limerick and the Mid West needing emergency homeless accommodation is on the decrease according to the latest published figures.
Despite this, there were still 426 people living in hotels, hostels, and other emergency accommodation across the Mid West in December, 135 of them children.
In Limerick alone there were 344 adults living in emergency accommodation throughout the month.
In the most recently published figures gathered from local authority homeless services nationwide, the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage confirmed number of people living in emergency accommodation nationwide in December stood at 9,356.
In Limerick, the count of 344 adults in emergency accommodation in December represents a slight decrease from 361 in November, with the Mid West overall decreasing from 430 to 426.
The number of Mid West families living in emergency accommodation in December stood at 87, including 135 children, again representing a decrease from 91 and 149 recorded respectively in November.
Quarterly figures for the end of 2023, also just released by the Department of Housing, showed there were 292 individuals and 86 families in homeless accommodation on the last day of December.
Of that number, 33 individuals and four families had been in emergency accommodation for longer than two years.
The reports were published as Limerick Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan raised the homeless issue in the Dáil saying that homeless services had “told me today that they are turning away people from emergency accommodation because there is nowhere for them to sleep”.
“They are doing that every single day. Something needs to be done. There needs to be an intervention specifically on that issue,” the Sinn Fein TD said.
