As homelessness reaches new record of 16,058 Focus Ireland says new Government Housing and Homeless plan must be a blueprint for both increasing housing supply & ending homelessness

New figures issued by the Department of Housing show another record total of 16,058 people now homeless. This is an increase of 143 people for July 2025 on the 15,915 people homeless in June. The figures show that homelessness has risen 11% in the last year when compared with July 2024.

There are now 5,014 children in 2,343 families homeless. Focus Ireland added that it is truly shocking that homelessness has nearly doubled (98%) in 4 years from 8,132 people homeless in July 2021 to 16,058 in July this year.

Commenting on the new figures Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said: “As children returned to school this week it is awful to think that there’s a record total of over 5,000 children homeless. (To give some scale of this human crisis – 5,000 is the equivalent of 220 primary school classes of children who are homeless)

“Many went back to school from the stress of living in emergency homeless accommodation. We believe that no child should be without a home. Homelessness hurts everyone and it hurts children the most. We need to end child homelessness. For good.’’

Focus Ireland said that the new Government “Housing and Homelessness Plan” – which is expected to be published in late September – must deliver a radical shift to housing and homeless policy. Mr. Dennigan outlined: “We recently met with Minister for Housing James Browne and officials in his department, and we stressed that the new Strategy must be a “Housing and Homelessness Plan” as the two issues are intrinsically linked. ”

“However, we also impressed upon the Minister that while housing and homelessness are linked, they are not the exact same thing.  Homelessness of course means needing a home but can often also require much more such as key supports and services to support people to settle and main their tenancy.”

Mr. Dennigan added: “Focus Ireland has recommended some urgent actions to prevent more people becoming homeless, including a review of HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) to align payments with current market rents. Focus Ireland also emphasised the urgent need to restore funding to the Tenant-In-Situ scheme.”

Mr Dennigan said: “The Tenant in Situ (TIS) scheme was part of the Government supports put in place after it ended the eviction ban. The scheme meant that if a landlord were selling up the Local Authority could buy the house and prevent the tenants from becoming homeless. The Government said it was part of a “safety net” to prevent families and individuals losing their homes and becoming homeless and it was working well in many cases.”

However, this scheme has been severely restricted in recent months, and many tenants have already become homeless, and many others are facing a very worrying future due to their pending eviction. It is not acceptable that the Government says a safety net is in place but then fails to provide enough funds to protect people. We are calling for immediate re-funding of the TIS scheme to prevent more people from becoming homeless. We highlighted this issue with the Minister and are hopefully of some positive action soon on it.”

Focus Ireland has also made a detailed submission to the Government in relation to new Housing Plan in May and intends to continue to work very closely with the State and related NGOs to help tackle the housing and homelessness more effectively.

Media contact: Roughan Mac Namara Focus Ireland 086 85 15 117