7 days ago
'No hope' of alternative accommodation for those moving from IPAS centres
Two agencies providing services to asylum applicants who have been granted permission to remain in Ireland have called on the Minister for Housing and Minister for Justice to work together to prevent thousands more people ending up in homeless services in the coming weeks and months.
It comes following confirmation from the Department of Justice that from tomorrow 2,042 people, including 600 families, will be moved from IPAS, on a phased basis over the coming months.
Charities Crosscare and Depaul work with those seeking international protection in Ireland and those who have legal status.
In a statement this evening, they stated that the risk of homelessness was a direct result of the Department of Justice moving people out of IPAS accommodation having been permitted to remain in Ireland, "even though they have little or no hope of finding alternative accommodation".
The chief executives of both organisations wrote to the ministers two months ago "pleading with them to work together to avoid escalating the homeless crisis".
Crosscare CEO Conor Hickey and Depaul CEO David Carroll warned both ministers that another 6,000 people with permission to live and work here could end up in homeless services.
In the past 18 months, over 7,000 people with status have left IPAS accommodation.
According to the latest homeless figures, a total of 15,747 people were in emergency accommodation last month, of whom 3,031 were from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Between May 2023 and May 2025, there was an increase of approximately 1,230 in the number of Non‑EEA adults in emergency accommodation.
Crosscare and DePaul have said the matter can no longer be ignored. They are concerned about families being removed from their communities.
"An offer that uproots vulnerable people and separates them and their children from their supports is not a real offer. It is simply unfair and unjust and must not be allowed," they said.
The joint statement called on the country's local authorities to "work together with IPAS to respond in a humane and planned manner for this group of people, many of whom are very vulnerable".
Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless households rests with individual local authorities.
However, Crosscare and Depaul have said frontline staff in both charities are finding that local authorities across the country are "not always accepting responsibility" for households who have become homeless after leaving IPAS.
"They can find themselves being moved between different authorities, and staff see them disproportionately present to Dublin homeless services.
"Some local authorities are failing to provide timely access to emergency accommodation; families at times have reported that they are not always being dealt with immediately and are told to return to IPAS for assistance."
The Department of Housing has acknowledged that the growth in the number of households being granted international protection or other forms of permission to remain in the State has resulted in local authorities seeing increasing presentations from households who have recently left direct provision accommodation.
Crosscare and Depaul have called a coordinated plan as a matter of "urgency", to support those with status who have been asked to move out of direct provision/IPAS and to postpone notices to those who have received letters that they must move on from their present accommodation.
