Former President Mary McAleese Adds Her Support to Focus Ireland No Child Without a Home Campaign as She Signs Petition to Help End Child Homelessness.     

Former President Mary McAleese has added her support to Focus Ireland’s No Child Without a Home campaign to end child homelessness as the charity reported it has supported 18% more children in the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period in 2024. The campaign is asking people to sign a petition to government which outlines a 5-point plan that Focus Ireland maintains would significantly help efforts to tackle child homelessness. Over 4,600 people have already signed the petition in the last month.   

Meanwhile, Focus Ireland said all its staff are all still heartbroken following the loss of Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy last week and added that continuing its work to end child homelessness is a fitting legacy to its founder.  

Speaking at an event in the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin Dr. Mary McAleese said: “The 1916 Proclamation used the expression “cherish all the children of the nation equally”.  We’ve yet to fulfil that vision. To fulfil it means demanding more, much more of ourselves and our leaders. There is real suffering in the lives of thousands of children, and the ending of it is in our power. Just as Sr Stan’s life was a permanent crusade against homelessness & child poverty, so her legacy is to make us take action and believe that we can change this miserable narrative into a story of real achievement, one to be proud of, not shamed by.”    

She added: “I am proud to support Focus Ireland’s No Child Without a Home campaign. This initiative is about hope and refusing to accept despair as inevitable. Focus Ireland works on the front lines, offering housing, practical support, and advocacy. Every child helped is a life transformed; every family supported is a future regained.’’    

She said: “My own commitment to this cause is deeply personal. Growing up during the Troubles in Belfast, my family experienced homelessness. As the eldest of nine children, I saw first hand the heartbreak and disruption it causes. We lost our home and moved from couch to couch, relying on the kindness of relatives. For a time, we lived in a derelict condemned house with no windows, offered by nuns as an interim solution.  We were there for two years before my parents scraped together from almost nothing the resources to create again a family home. These experiences left lasting scars, especially on my parents, me and my siblings……My own story is a simple but stark reminder that crisis can strike any family, and vulnerability can touch anyone.’’  

The charity launched the campaign as figures issued last Friday show a new record number of 5,238 children are homeless – The number of children homeless has now shockingly risen by 135% in the last four years. * Katie Wallace, 21, an early childhood education student who was previously homeless with her family and niece for a period in Meath last year also spoke at the event. Earlier this year, Katie was a contestant of Miss Ireland and chose to support Focus Ireland as one of her chosen charities for the competition.    

Katie said: “I thought it would be a good idea to use my own experience to talk about breaking the stigma of homelessness.”  Katie has spoken on her family’s experience of homelessness during Miss Ireland and on her own social media, speaking on the emotional trauma for them, including her 9-year-old niece. She said: “It was terrifying to talk about. I was scared that people would have a different perception of me. But then I realised that being homeless isn’t who I am, it’s just what I went through.” 
 
Recounting the experience of being evicted from her childhood home after 12 years of renting, Katie spoke about the impact on herself and her family, “We only had a week to leave, so we had a week to pack up 12 years of our life into boxes.”   

The family were placed in emergency accommodation at a bed and breakfast, sharing 2 rooms between the 5 of them, “I consider myself one of the lucky ones, not many people are so lucky with the situation they get put into… but obviously it was still very hard.”  She concluded: “If you don’t talk about something, no one knows it’s going on and that is why I am supporting Focus Ireland’s campaign as there should be no child without a home.  Especially in a wealthy country like Ireland.  It is wrong and totally unacceptable.”  

Focus Ireland CEO Pat Dennigan said: “Sr. Stan’s vision was that every one of us has a right to a place we can call home yet there’s now a record total of over 16,614 people homeless. Focus Ireland is marking its 40th anniversary this year and as Stan said herself not so long ago sadly, we have never seen it this bad. Homelessness is simply wrong and it’s the most vulnerable in our communities paying the price. Yet for decades the government has failed to build enough social and affordable housing to meet people’s needs. Homelessness destroys lives it hurts children the most. “  

He added: “We believe that ending homelessness is possible. We’ll continue our work and live up to Sr. Stan’s values.  Every day we’re helping people get back on their feet and into homes. But we can’t do it alone. That is why we’re running this campaign and asking people to sign up & support our 5-point plan and call on the Government to implement to help end child homelessness.”  You can sign the petition at No Child Without A Home – Focus Ireland    

The 5-point plan features these key actions: 1. Stop No-Fault evictions into homelessness by funding the Tenant-in-Situ programme immediately.2. Stop families being evicted because of unaffordable rents by increasing HAP rates to reflect market rents. 3. Build enough of the Right Homes in the Right Places. 4. Prioritise long-term homeless Families and Children for Social Housing. 5. Protect children by introducing a ‘Best interest of the child’ regulation for local authorities. More details on these 5-points can be found on the petition website.   

Mr Dennigan concluded: “We hope that at least some – if not all – of our 5-point plan will be included in the Government housing and homelessness plan which is now due to be launched this week. We work in partnership with the State to tackle child and family homelessness and a lot of good work has been achieved but the constantly rising numbers homeless clearly show much more needs to be done.”   

The campaign also features a hard-hitting short film/ad which shows the terrible emotional toll homelessness has on children which can be viewed at this link    https://bit.ly/47WbxKq 

Media Contact: Roughan Mac Namara, Head of Communications, Focus Ireland. Ph: 086 85 15117  

• Editors note:  * Overall homelessness has risen from 8,475 to 16,614, an increase of 8,139 people (+96%) between Sept 2021 – Sept 2025.  

• Child homelessness has risen from 2,344 to 5,238, an increase of 2,894 children (+123%) in the same period. 

• Meanwhile, Focus Ireland supported 3,800 children in 1,700 families Jan to end of Oct 2024 and this shot up by 18% to 4,500 children in over 2,000 families in the same period this year.