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Monday, 17 Apr 2023
Updated / Monday, 17 Apr 2023 17:19
The spring 2023 rough sleeper count has found that 83 people were
sleeping rough over a week in March (File image)
By Ailbhe Conneely
Social Affairs & Religion Correspondent
There was a 9% reduction in the number of people sleeping rough in
Dublin last month compared to spring and winter in 2022.
That is according to the latest Dublin Homeless Regional Executive
figures released this afternoon.
The Rough Sleeper Count takes place bi-annually to measure the level of
street homelessness in the Dublin region.
The count takes place over a full week, during which the Dublin Simon
Outreach team engage in an assessment of people sleeping rough, or at
risk of sleeping rough.
sleeping rough over the week 6 March to 12 March, 2023.
Most were aged between 26 and 45 and 71% were male.
Of those known to homeless services, 48% were using tents and 5% had
recently lost their tenancies.
During the course of the count week, 48% had a booking for Emergency
Accommodation on another night during the count week.
However, only 32% presented at their accommodation while the rest were
"no-shows".
The majority (79%) of individuals who were found rough sleeping in the
Dublin region during the March 2023 count were Irish, while a further
19% had EU citizenship. The remaining 3% had non-EU citizenship.
CEO of Dublin Simon Community Catherine Kenny described the reduction
as "very good news" and a testament to the hard work put in by
statutory providers to target the issue.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, she said that numbers are still "a little
high", but trends are going in the right direction.
Ms Kenny added that her team will continue to work until no one is
sleeping rough on the streets.
"We need to identify the long term housing options, need to continue to
tackle the housing market, both emergency accommodation and long-term
accommodation, for every one of those 83 and for those who remain in
short term insecure accommodation," she said.
The Peter McVerry Trust welcomed the decline in the number of people
sleeping rough in the city.
While it acknowledged that the decline is in the context of the growing
number of people entering homelessness nationally, its CEO Pat Doyle
described it as "a success to see the most vulnerable in our society
entrenched rough sleepers – moving on into their own home".
The Peter McVerry Trust says this was made possible by resources
provided by the DRHE through additional emergency beds, intensified
street outreach work by the trust and Dublin Simon and an increase in
Housing First targets for Dublin, which it says has seen more homes
secured for people who were sleeping rough across the city.
In a statement, Mr Doyle said key to reducing the number of people
sleeping rough is "Housing First". "Our Housing First Intake team
provide consistent and effective engagement with rough sleepers across
the city – enabling them to move into their own property and out of
homelessness for good," he said.