'Shameful' homelessness crisis 'has deepened to an unprecedented level'

The Focus Ireland report showed that the level of households supported out of homelessness increased by 10% from 2023 to 1,209, with the number of families likewise aided up by a massive 21% to 587.

Housing charity Focus Ireland helped a record number of families to find a home in 2024 but warned that Ireland’s homelessness crisis has “deepened to an unprecedented level”.

At the launch of the organisation’s annual report for 2024 in Dublin, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy, the charity’s founder, said that when she first set Focus Ireland up 40 years ago she believed that “homelessness could be ended in 10 years”.

“That was not a dream, it was a real possibility. But repeatedly, governments have failed to deliver on housing. Today, the homelessness crisis has deepened to an unprecedented level,” she said.

The annual report showed that the level of households supported out of homelessness increased by 10% from 2023 to 1,209, with the number of families likewise aided up by a massive 21% to 587.

In 2024, 18,000 people engaged with Focus Ireland’s services, the charity said.

Sr Stanislaus described the record numbers in emergency accommodation in 2025 as “shameful”.

“There are not just statistics. They are families in hotel rooms, children without stability and parents who feel invisible and powerless.’’ 

Focus Ireland chief executive Pat Dennigan once more pointed out that, despite the Government pledging to end homelessness by 2030 amid a stable economy, last year saw “near constant increases” in the levels of those living in homeless accommodation. Mr Dennigan described 2024 as “one of the worst years on record”.

“Rising homelessness and the Government’s failure to put in place policies to bring it under control have not shaken us in our belief that homelessness can be solved,” he said.

He called for the Government’s forthcoming Housing and Homelessness Plan, due to be published later this month, to showcase “a radical shift in both housing and homelessness policy”.

Sr Stanislaus meanwhile emphasised that her charity’s experience has led them to a position to “know what works”, that being “prevention, social and affordable housing, strong collaboration, and housing with support”.

“These are not radical ideas; they are proven solutions,” she said.

What is needed now is the courage and political will to deliver them at scale. Homelessness is not inevitable. It is the result of choices made. And it can be ended by making different, better choices.”