New Limerick homelessness numbers highest yet of 2024
Over 400 adults experienced homelessness in the month of June
THE LATEST homeless figures released by the government show a new record level for Limerick with 425 adults experiencing homelessness at the end of June.
This represents an increase of 15 people from May’s figures, and an increase of 81 on June 2023.
Across the Mid-West region, which consists of Limerick and Clare, there were 188 children accessing emergency accommodation, which is an increase of 10 on the numbers from May.
A total of 14,303 people accessed emergency accommodation nationwide in June, including 4,044 children.
Responding to the figures, Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan said, “People in Limerick will be rightly asking how can we be experiencing record homelessness at a time when there are 227 vacant local authority houses across the county?”.
He believes that the answer to this question is “a consistent failure of government to release the necessary funding to bring these houses back into use in a timely manner, combined with a failure to tackle the 5,900 vacant properties in the private sector across the state that remain idle”.
Senator Gavan also feels that the government’s decision to end the no-fault eviction ban last year has “exacerbated” the homelessness crisis.
“What’s happening in Limerick is mirrored by what is happening right across the state," he noted.
Senator Gavan continued: "Government targets are too low and they are not even meeting them”.