Charity hopes corner turned on homelessness as figure dips below 10,000

The head of a leading homeless charity said he hopes the country has now turned a corner in the homelessness crisis.

Official figures for December put the number in emergency accommodation below 10,000 for the first time since February last year.

The drop of over 700 people was also one of the largest since records began six years ago.

Pat Doyle, CEO of The Peter McVerry Trust, says the reduction has been a long time coming.

"If we could keep that up now, it could see the beginnings of the end of the peaks and us steadily getting back to where we once were," he said.

"It comes on the back of a drop of the rough sleeper count in the last quarter of the year so the two together gives us some hope that we might be getting to the end of this."