Housing crisis ‘forcing parents to leave children in care’

Parents are being forced to make “heart-breaking” decisions to leave their children in care because they are unable to secure appropriate accommodation, a leading children’s charity has said.

Barnardos was commenting on the impact of figures which recorded a 40% rise in the number of families living in emergency accommodation.

The charity’s head of advocacy, June Tinsley, said the latest Dublin Region Homeless Executive figures reveal that 371 families and 803 children were housed in emergency shelter last month.