Spending on homelessness to hit €2.4bn for the decade so far

The department does not directly fund emergency accommodation but provides it to housing authorities who administer services across the country. File picture

The Government’s spending on homelessness is set to hit €2.4bn for the decade so far, new figures show.

Spending on homelessness services has jumped massively over recent years, as the number of people in emergency accommodation continues to rise month-on-month.

New figures show that between 2020 and 2025, nearly €1.89bn has been spent by the Department of Housing on homelessness supports.

This does not include the €513m allocated for homelessness in 2026, which will bring the total spending over the last six years to over €2.4bn.

It comes as a record 17,885 people were recorded as having accessed emergency accommodation in August, of which 5,830 were children.

The data, released to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne, also confirms that in 2025, just 6% of the funding went towards homelessness prevention measures.

“The fact that just 6% of expenditure on homelessness is on prevention sums up this Government’s policy failures,” Mr Hearne said.

“Rather than investing in tackling the causes of homelessness — preventing evictions, increasing use of tenant in situ purchase, and increased building of social housing, the Government is handing over €5oom a year mainly to for-profit emergency accommodation providers.”

Mr Hearne said the Government is “pouring money” into short-term responses to the homelessness crisis, rather than addressing the root causes.

“The scale of homelessness is truly scandalous and is one of the most shameful failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments,” Mr Hearne said.

"They should implement an immediate ban on evictions into homelessness and take the Finnish investing in prevention approach to tackle this emergency.”

Ber Grogan, chief executive of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said too much money was being “wasted on private emergency accommodation.

“It seems like there are huge amounts of money going into addressing homelessness each year, but the reality is that the majority of that money is going into warehousing people with no supports. Simply putting a roof over someone's head is simply not good enough.” Ms Grogan said.

A total of €543m in current funding has been allocated for homelessness services in 2027, with Ms Grogan saying it is not clear how much of this goes to” quality charity services” compared to for-profit operators.

“Morally, it is a disgrace. Economically, it is a waste of taxpayer money."

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The department does not directly fund emergency accommodation but provides it to housing authorities who administer services across the country.

“It is a matter for the management group of the consultative forum to determine the type and range of homeless services including prevention measures to address homelessness in each region,” housing minister James Browne said, in response to Mr Hearne.

Last year, the highest spend on homelessness was in the Dublin region, with almost €319m provided by the Department of Housing. 

Meanwhile, in the south west region, which covers Cork and Kerry, nearly €43.5m was spent.

Up-to-date figures for people in emergency accommodation are expected to be published this Friday, when the department confirms the data for September.