New “Focus on Homelessness Report” Shows Adult-Only Homelessness Has Increased by More Than 200% Since 2014

Focus Ireland & Trinity College team up for report analysing homelessness

A new report published by Focus Ireland today in partnership with Trinity College Dublin has confirmed that the number of adult-only households experiencing homelessness in Ireland has shockingly risen by over 200% since 2014.

The new report is part of a series of “Focus on Homelessness” reports Focus Ireland has published in partnership with the School of Social Policy at TCD. This edition of Focus on Homelessness looks at the trends in homelessness among ‘adult-only’ households composed of either a single adult individual or couples without accompanying children.

Significant developments emerging from this report includes:

The number of adult-only households in Emergency Accommodation has tripled since 2014 (from 1,962 in June 2014 to 6,000 in October 2023)

The increase in adult-only homelessness has primarily occurred in Dublin which now accounts for 70% of all homeless adult-only households. There was no increase in homelessness adult-only households outside of Dublin between 2018 and 2022, but this overall figure masks decreases in some regions and increases in others.

The gap between households entering emergency accommodation and exiting EA fell in 2020 and 2021, but increases in subsequent years, with declining exits being a greater factor than rising entrances. In 2022, four adult-only households entered homelessness for every one that made a sustained exit.

The number of adult-only households who were ‘accepted as homeless’ in Dublin has remained almost static at around 215 month for the last 6 years, except for a slight dip in 2020

While homeless adult-only households are predominantly male (75%), the number of females has increased faster than males (171% for females since 2014 compared with 133% for males).

Focus Ireland Director of Advocacy Mike Allen said: “We  are all familiar with the overall homeless figures which come out each month, which include single people and families with children. Focus Ireland and others have rightly published a lot of material looking at families and children who are homeless, but because of way that figures are published, the pattern of homelessness among single people, or adults without accompanying children, has been much less visible.

(Note: Until April 2023, Government statistics did not publish a figure for homeless ‘adult only households’ and this had to be derived by subtracting the number of adults in homeless families from the total number of adults.)

“This report reveals a shocking picture in which single person’s homelessness has been allowed to steadily increase, year on year, so that we now have triple the number of homeless single people than we did just a decade ago. It is important to remember that homelessness was already routinely described as a crisis when it was a third of the current level.

“What is even more striking is that single persons’ homelessness has increased almost in a straight line for ten years: two changes in Government, five different Ministers, the introduction and removal of eviction bans, the collapse and recovery of housing construction, the launch of a successful Housing First programme, all have made little difference to the steady destructive upward trend.

He added: “Here is clear evidence that we need to radically rethink the way we are approaching single persons homelessness, including how we treat the needs of single person households right throughout our housing system. The private sector does not find it commercially viable to build homes for single person households and, although single people make up the majority of people on social housing waiting lists, homes suitable for their needs are only a fraction of social housing construction. There is no target for construction homes for single person households in Housing For All .”

The report also highlights that the overall number of adult-only households in homelessness, hides both gendered and geographical trends. In 2020 and 2021, the increase in adult-only homelessness was largely made up of males in Dublin. However, since mid-2022, we have seen increasing levels of adult-only homelessness in Dublin and the rest of Ireland, and for both men and women.

Focus Ireland has called for more urgency to tackle the ever-deepening housing crisis as a record total of over 13,500 people are now homeless in Ireland.  Mike Allen said: “The Government is not using anywhere near enough of the new social housing supply coming on stream to drive down homelessness. Families and single people who are long-term homeless need to get a fairer share of the new homes that become available.”

The authors of ‘Focus on Homelessness’ were Prof Eoin O’Sullivan (School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin), Emma Byrne (Focus Ireland Policy Officer) and Mike Allen (Focus Ireland Advocacy Director). The full report is available at on focusireland.ie at https://bit.ly/49cAUoJ