Over 2,500 children will be homeless on Christmas day

More than 2,500 children will be homeless in Ireland on Christmas day.

Some are almost 70 families who became homeless last month.

Focus Ireland yesterday said a further 67 families were added to Dublin’s homeless list during October.

The homeless support agency’s director of advocacy, Mike Allen, said: “It is terrible to see, during the last year, the number of children who are homeless and living in emergency accommodation in Dublin has more than doubled from 1,343 to 2,110.

“Christmas should be one of the happiest times of year for children and their families. However, it truly awful to realise that over 2,500 children will be homeless this Christmas Day. This is wrong and it is totally unacceptable.”

During the first 10 months of 2016, Focus Ireland helped 230 families move out of homelessness into secure homes.

“However, as at least two families are still becoming homeless every single day the crisis continues to deepen,” said Mr Allen.

Increasing rents and a growing number of buy-to-let homes being either repossessed or sold is causing a constant rise in the numbers being forced into homelessness.

Focus Ireland called for urgent action from the Government to stem the level of evictions, particularly from “buy-to-let” landlords.

“There are over 15,000 buy-to-let landlords who are in arrears by over two years. Banks and financial institutions are repossessing these homes and evicting the tenants at a rate of 100 a month,” said Mr Allen.

“We are calling on the Government to outlaw this practice and ensure, where banks repossess such properties, they sell them on with the tenant still in place.”