'Not enough' emergency beds for homeless in the southeast 

Homelessness in Dublin city centre. Now there concerns over rising levels of homelessness in the southeast.

Rising levels of homelessness in the southeast have been highlighted in a new report which shows there are not enough emergency beds for people who need accommodation.

The figures are contained in the latest local authority homeless performance reports for the first quarter of this year, published by the Department of Housing, which also shows that in Dublin, almost 46,000 households have accessed the tenancy protection service since June 2014.

The southeast region incorporates counties Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Tipperary. 

The region had 57 new families and 82 new single presentations to its homeless services in the first three months of the year. There were also 41 families returning to the service and 259 individuals in the same period.

In the same quarter, 22 families and 62 single people were prevented from becoming homeless in the area, mainly through private rented and local authority lettings.

The recent surge in homelessness in the southeast is also shown in the length of time people have been in emergency accommodation. Of the 200 single people in homeless accommodation, 128 had been in that situation for up to six months.

It was a similar story with families: out of a total of 32, 26 had been in emergency accommodation for six months or less.

This has, in turn, placed greater pressure on the number of beds available. According to the quarterly report, the total number of adult beds available on the last day of March was 168, but the number of beds occupied on the same day stood at 238.

Just 21 single people and eight families exited homelessness in the same quarter.

There were also 75 rough sleepers in the southeast in contact with Outreach Team in the first quarter of this year. By contrast, there were 70 people in contact with the outreach team for rough sleepers in the southwest, which covers counties Cork and Kerry.

The Irish Examiner reported this week that homeless families and individuals are being turned away and told to source their own accommodation in Limerick as there are now no emergency beds available.

A Limerick City and County Council spokesperson confirmed that currently all emergency accommodation is "full, or near to capacity".

"Anyone presenting when a place isn’t available is given money to self-accommodate, which is in line with legislation," the spokesperson added.

The issue had been raised by Sinn Féin Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan, who said homelessness was "spiralling to new and concerning levels" in the area, and support body Novas stating there was a dearth of one-bed units.

As for Dublin, the latest quarterly report also shows that since June 2014, 45,997 households had contacted the tenancy protection service including 16,632 households described as 'at risk' of losing their tenancy.

The latest monthly homeless report saw the overall number of people in emergency accommodation rise back above 10,000, and the shortage of available housing stock is having an impact, with the quarterly report showing just over 2,000 households contacting the Tenancy Protection Service in the first three months of this year. That figure includes 520 households deemed 'at risk.