OVER 400 people in Limerick accessed emergency accommodation during the month of June, the government’s latest report on homelessness has revealed.
The June Homeless Report, published this past week by the Department of Housing, showed that 425 adults in Limerick accessed emergency accommodation across the month of June.
A further 74 people were reported as living in emergency accommodation in Clare in the same period, bringing the Mid West’s total to 499 for the month of June – or five per cent of the nationwide total number of 14,303 people experiencing homelessness in just one month.
The report only includes the number of those living in emergency accommodation and does not take into account the many more ‘hidden homeless’ staying with friends, family, or on the streets.
80 people in the Mid West from the ages of 18 to 24 accessed emergency accommodation in June, with 133 people aged between 45 and 64. There were 11 people aged 65 or over accessing emergency accommodation in June.
The same period saw 188 children across the Mid West in emergency accommodation, with 4,404 in the same situation nationwide.
The Department of Housing also published the Homeless Quarterly Progress Report for quarter two of this year, which showed that, in the Mid West, the most common length of stay in emergency accommodation was up to six months.
This stay length was reported as being the same for both single households (176 stays in the three-month period) and family households (50).
34 single households and two families in the Mid West were in emergency accommodation for more than two years.
Nationally, 14,303 people were homeless at the end of the second quarter of the year, according to the Department’s report.
In June, there were 4,404 children across Ireland experiencing homelessness.
The quarterly report described “relationship breakdown or family circumstance” as being the leading cause of people entering emergency accommodation between April and June this year, followed by “notice of termination of tenancy in private rental property”.
“Overcrowding” and “leaving direct provision” were other leading reasons.
Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said that the report “unfortunately records a further increase in the number of individuals accessing emergency accommodation”.
“My department continues to work closely with local authorities and their service delivery partners in the provision of this support to enable households to secure an exit to a tenancy or to avoid entering emergency accommodation in the first place,” he concluded.
