Louth County Council figures reveal 179 homeless people in North East in January

Louth County Council reported that 179 adults accessed local authority managed emergency accommodation in the North East, including 153 in Louth, during the period 1 January - 27 January 2023.

The North East region comprises Louth, Monaghan and Cavan. Eight people were recorded as having accessed local authority managed emergency accommodation in Monaghan in January, and 18 in Cavan.

Louth County Council also reported that 27 families with 57 children accessed local authority managed emergency accommodation in Louth in January.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Monthly Homelessness Report for January was released today. The time period covered by the Department's report is just one week however. It reports that during the week of 23-29 January 2023, 143 adults accessed local authority managed emergency accommodation in the North East. 

The Dept's figures do not break down how many were in each county. The figures from the Dept also show 27 families with 58 child dependants accessed emergency accommodation in the North East during the week of 23 – 29 January 2023 but does not say what the number was for each individual county.

Nationally, 8,323 adults accessed local authority managed emergency accommodation during the week of 23-29 January 2023, along with 3,431 child dependants, giving a total of 11,754 people. 

Commenting on the latest figures, David Carroll, Chief Executive of Depaul, said “Today’s published figures show that the moratorium on evictions has not been effective in reducing the amount of people in homelessness, therefore Depaul is calling for a three to six-month extension, provided strict measures are implemented and overseen throughout this period.

“No more pressure can be put on the Homeless Temporary Accommodation system for both families and single people - homeless services are at capacity. Any significant increase in presentations will be very difficult to deal with.

“Young people who would traditionally have accessed the private rental sector are now struggling to find affordable accommodation. We are seeing a younger cohort who don’t have complex needs presenting to our homeless services. Currently 40% of people accessing our emergency accommodation services are aged between 18-30 years old.

"It’s essential that we target young people coming into Temporary Accomodation to get them out as soon as possible back into long term housing - if we don’t take radical steps, homelessness will significantly hinder their long term prospects.

A key driver of homelessness in the past year has been the exit of smaller landlords from the private rented sector combined with a lack of social and affordable housing supply. In order to create housing options, we must introduce selective tax incentives for small landlords, to encourage them to stay in the market.

"Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies have a key role to play in delivering on housing stock and must be equipped to manage and purchase housing stock that becomes available from this source. Depaul is appealing to landlords who are exiting the market to contact their local authorities to offer the properties for sale so that the tenants in situ can remain.”

“There’s a nervousness across the sector as the March deadline approaches. An extension has to be implemented at this critical time. We will see a surge in the number of people presenting as homeless once the ban lifts and we must prepare. Temporary accommodation is not the solution.”

“We must do everything we can to prevent more people from entering homelessness and to give people already in homelessness a way out. Once a person becomes homeless, it’s extremely difficult to exit particularly with suitable housing being in such short supply.”