Man in his 20s becomes fourth homeless person to die in Ireland in last week

A homeless man in his 20s has died while staying in emergency accommodation in Dublin.

His death on Tuesday night in Kilmainham brings to four the number of homeless people who have passed away in Ireland within one week

Last Wednesday a Tallaght woman in her 20s took her own life while staying in accommodation in Leixlip, while two rough sleepers died in Dublin and Cork.

It comes ahead of tomorrow's Emergency Housing Summit convened by the Housing Minister, Eoghan Murphy.

The Simon Communities are calling for a vacant site levy, the trebling of spending on social housing and index-linked rents in their action plan ahead of the summit.

It is also calling for greater co-ordination among Government departments and State agencies to tackle the crisis.

Spokesperson Niamh Randall says €1bn is needed to kick-start a new social housing programme.

Ms Randall said: "The whole Rebuilding Ireland strategy is under review and part of our concern would be that the strategy is predicated on the private sector to deliver a huge amount of social housing.

"Currently the problem isn't producing housing for the private market, so we think that there needs to be an urgent rethink of this."