Record homelessness
The overall number of homeless people in the State is five times higher than 12 years ago when data collection began, while the number of homeless children increased sevenfold in the same period.
Since the Government was formed in January 2025, an additional 2,022 people have become homeless, representing a 13 per cent increase within 13 months.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s homelessness report figures from February 2026 show that there are 17,308 people living in emergency accommodation in the State, the Government’s metric for measuring homelessness.
One reason for this considerable increase is the large number of families who have become homeless in the past year. An additional 400 families have become homeless since January 2025, a 21 per cent rise.
This increase in the number of families in emergency accommodation has had a pronounced effect on child homelessness. Since January 2025, this has increased by 19 per cent.
This is significantly more than the 11 per cent increase for adults. However, the proportion of homeless people who are single adults fell by 3.5 per cent in this time frame.
In Q4 2025, 840 adults exited emergency accommodation. This represents a 9 per cent decrease from Q4 2024 when the figure stood at 922.
The homelessness crisis persists in spite of the fact that, in 2025, Ireland experienced record employment levels and a growth in the Modified Gross National Income (GNI*) of almost 5 per cent.
In an attempt to tackle the issue, Budget 2026 contained a 20 per cent increase in Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage funding, with over €5 billion allocated to boost housing supply.
The Government also launched its new housing action plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, in November 2025 to speed up the delivery of new homes in order to tackle homelessness.
The plan features an investment of €275 billion over 10 years, the largest ever in the history of the State, and has targets of creating 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable housing supports by 2030.
There is also a focus on ending child and family homelessness, with €100 million allocated to fund the second-hand acquisition of homes for families who have been in emergency accommodation the longest.
As well as this, the Government plans to work with local authorities to ensure the delivery of social housing will address the needs of those experiencing homelessness locally.
This means increasing the amount of one-bedroom and four-bedroom properties which are suitable for single adults and families will be prioritised.
Long-term trends
The longer-term data highlights that child homelessness represents a major failure of the State.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has released monthly homelessness data since July 2014. The first report showed that there were 749 homeless children in Ireland, while in February 2026, the figure stood at 5,319.
This means that in a period where Ireland has become one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies with its GNI* climbing €350 billion, the number of homeless children has increased sevenfold.
In the same period, the adult homeless population also increased by 370 per cent, from 2,509 to 11,851, as the State has struggled to find a solution to this crisis.
Homelessness has consistently risen since 2014, with the only reprieves coming during the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent eviction ban, which occurred in 2020 and early 2021.
The temporary winter eviction bans from November 2022 to March 2023 also stopped figures rising for a few months, but when this was lifted, homelessness dramatically shot back up.
This correlation between evictions and homelessness, alongside a 21 per cent increase in evictions in 2025 compared to the previous year, has prompted calls for another ban.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson, Eoin Ó Broin TD, says: “Month on month, there is further evidence that this Government is making the homelessness crisis worse. We need an emergency ban on no-fault evictions now, and we need an emergency package of measures to both prevent homelessness and get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly.”
Although the eviction bans provided some short-term reductions in homelessness it has consistently increased for over a decade in the absence of these one-off measures, and points to deeper structural challenges which are driving the State’s record homelessness.
