Some 38,000 adults have been homeless since 2014

A new report notes a continuing rise in homelessness among single people as well as regional variations. File picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

A staggering 38,000 unique adults have experienced homelessness for some period since 2014, while just over €1bn was spent on services for households experiencing homelessness over a similar period.

The figures are contained in a new report being launched today in a collaboration between Focus Ireland and the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. 

It maps a number of significant trends in homelessness here over a seven-year period, including how the downward trend in the overall number of people in emergency accommodation began in mid-2018.

It also notes a continuing rise in homelessness among single people as well as regional variations. 

For example, family homelessness outside of Dublin continued to rise after a decline was evident in the capital, reaching its peak more than a year after the Dublin peak, in October 2019. 

While homelessness in adult-only households continues to grow in Dublin (and in the national figures), it has been declining significantly in a number of regions for some time, such as in the Midlands, the North-East and the South-East.

The report, entitled Focus on Homelessness: Significant Developments in Homelessness 2014–2021, is being launched at a webinar by speakers including Professor Eoin O’Sullivan of Trinity College, editor of Focus on Homelessness and Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick of Herriot Watt University, editor of the Homeless Monitor which publishes homeless data in the UK.

Focus Ireland’s director of advocacy, Mike Allen, is one of the authors of the report, alongside Mr O’Sullivan and Aisling Reidy.

According to the report: “More people experienced homelessness than the monthly figures suggest. While the number of adults who were homeless over this period never went above 7,000 in any given month, a total of 38,000 unique adults experienced a period of homelessness in emergency accommodation over the period Q1 2014 to Q1 2021.

“Nearly 22,500 adults exited emergency accommodation to either a social housing tenancy or support between Q1 2014 and Q1 2021.

“This high number of individuals entering homelessness and moving out relatively quickly is contrasted with the experiences of those who were unable to successfully exit. 

"The number of adults in emergency accommodation for a period of longer than six months increased from under 1,000 in Q1 2014 to over 4,000 by Q4 2020, but dropped to just under 3,500 in Q1 2021.” 

It said the responses to homelessness were expensive. 

A total of just over €1bn was expended on services for households experiencing homelessness between 2013 and 2020, with three-quarters of this (€824m) being spent on emergency accommodation. 

“Of this, just over €503m was expended on private providers of emergency accommodation with the balance going to non-governmental providers.

“Over the period 2014 to 2020, the average cost of maintaining a household in Emergency Accommodation has nearly doubled, from €15,000 to nearly €30,000.” 

In a letter accompanying the report, Mike Allen said: “The picture of homelessness which emerges from this report is deeply alarming, but in many ways is more complex than current public debate allows. 

"The total number of people who are homeless is a vital measure, but the core metric for policymakers should be the number of households, because this figure indicates the number of homes needed to solve the problem.

“The number of homeless households is not showing any signs of falling from its historic high, driven primarily by the continued high level of homeless single adults.”