26-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Report says 641 adults were in emergency accommodation in Cork at the end of March
The Monthly Homelessness Report for March 2025, issued by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, confirmed that 641 adults were in emergency accommodation across the boundaries of Cork City Council and Cork County Council at the end of March.
A total of 204 children were in such accommodation across Cork and Kerry at this time.
Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, Thomas Gould, has called on the government to implement an emergency response to battle homelessness in Cork.
'The release of these figures every month should be a stain on government parties. They should be ashamed to see record homelessness in Cork city and across this state again and again. Instead, they are pushing forward with the same failed policies and cruel actions,' Deputy Gould said.
'How many children must become homeless before this government admits that this is an emergency? How many more families in Cork must fit everything they own into a hotel room before this government admits they have failed?
'I am sick and tired of broken promises and empty rhetoric. What we need now is a radical change in housing policy. Anything else is failing the children of Ireland.'
The Quarter Progress Report, also released by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, cited that five families in Cork and Kerry spent over two years in emergency accommodation.
Deputy Gould said 'trauma' will impact these families for the rest of their lives.
'What is extremely worrying is that the Quarterly Progress Report shows that exits from homelessness were down on last year and that five families in Cork and Kerry have now spent more than two years in emergency accommodation,' he said.
'These are children growing up in hotels – they have spent two birthdays, two Christmases and now two Easters without a home of their own. The trauma of this will stay with them for the rest of their lives.'
