More than 13,000 people — including 3,962 children — were homeless at Christmas

A pram stands beside a homeless tent outside the Cornmarket Financial Services offices in Christchurch, Dublin. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

There were 13,318 people homeless in Ireland at Christmas time, the latest figures have shown.

This figure includes 9,356 adults and 3,962 children. There were 1,916 families recorded as homeless in December 2023, the Department of Housing’s latest report said.

Over half of the families (56%) were single parent families.

The number has fallen slightly from the previous month. November saw record homelessness when 13,514 people were in emergency accommodation, including 4,105 children.

The official homeless numbers usually fall in December as people depending on emergency accommodation may be supported by friends and family over the Christmas period.

In the fourth quarter of 2023, 744 adults exited emergency accommodation by way of a tenancy being created. This was a drop of 1.2% on the same period in 2022.

However, the number of adults prevented from entering emergency accommodation through a local authority letting or other form of tenancy doubled to 1,490 adults, the report said.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said: “In the last quarter of last year, nationwide, 609 households exited homelessness — an increase in the last quarter of 7.6% in household exits and specifically an increase of 11.3% in family exits. So we are moving more and more people than before into permanent and stable homes.

“However, despite this, there is no doubt whatsoever that immense pressure remains on our homelessness services. Supply of housing and accommodation – social, affordable and private — remains the ultimate solution to addressing the challenge in the longer term.

“Homelessness is a very complex challenge — with many individuals entering emergency accommodation for a myriad of reasons. However, we have a plan and we are making a difference.”

On Thursday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the home-building targets for 2023 were exceeded but said the Government must do better and was playing “catch up”.

"The housing deficit remains very big, we have a rising population and ever smaller household sizes. So we need more homes and we need them built as soon as possible. But we can only do that so quickly," Mr Varadkar said.

The number of social and affordable houses built in 2023 has not yet been calculated. The Government had set out to build 9,100 social homes and 5,500 affordable and cost-rental homes in 2023 in its housing plan.

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that the Government’s landmark Housing for All plan “could easily be renamed Housing for Some”.

“The Government’s half-baked policy approach to housing is having devastating real-life impacts,” she said.

“We know that two-thirds of young adults are still living in their childhood bedrooms, we have record-breaking levels of homelessness which continue to skyrocket under the watch of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and we have a rental market in utter disarray.

“We need to see more focus and funding given to local authorities to get back to building and providing social and affordable homes if we are to meaningfully address the housing crisis.”