THE NUMBER OF people in emergency accommodation increased by 378 last month to reach a record high of 17,112.
It’s the first time the figure has hit over 17,000, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.
Of the 17,112 people living in emergency accommodation in January, 5,319 were children.
The figure also includes 2,555 families.
There had been a slight decrease of 262 people in December’s figures, which stood at 16,734, but homelessness charities and opposition TDs had warned at the time that the dip was seasonal and unlikely to last.
The figures come ahead of major changes to renting rules from this Sunday, which advocates fear will make it harder for some tenants to find accommodation due to rent hikes.
The Dublin Simon Community noted that after a “brief dip during the Christmas season,” the figures ”once again swung upward”.
“The first figures of the year underline that the crisis remains deeply entrenched and that sustained pressure across housing, affordability and support systems continues to push people into homelessness,” added a spokesperson.
Catherine Kenny, CEO of Dublin Simon Community, said that as “new rental regulations come into effect, it is important to recognise how closely homelessness is tied to conditions in the private rental market”.
She said that in Dublin, one quarter of households who become homeless come from the private rental market and cite notices of termination and affordability as the reasons.
In the 12-months to January 2026, there has been an increase of 1,826 people in emergency accommodation, up close to 12% in a year.
Focus Ireland meanwhile called for a “shift in policy to ease this human crisis” and warned that “new rent regulations mean anyone seeking a new tenancy from this week will be paying substantially higher than they would have been last month”.
Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne meanwhile accused the government of creating “dystopian conditions for a generation of renters and adults trapped in their childhood bedrooms”.
He also said the Government has introduced “disastrous rental measures which will allow landlords to increase rents between tenancies”.
“In the run-up to this measure being introduced on Sunday, we have seen a significant increase in the number of evictions,” said Hearne.
“For those who’ve been kicked out of their accommodation, the struggle for finding a suitable alternative will become even greater after 1 March.
“Institutional investors, corporate landlords and vulture funds have publicly acknowledged that they will now be able to hike rents to even greater heights.”
He called on the Government to put in place a ban on evictions and warned that homelessness services are at “breaking point as emergency accommodation reaches capacity in countless towns and cities across the country”.
Elsewhere, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin remarked: “How many more people will be forced into homelessness before Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael realise it is their housing policies driving this crisis and that until these policies change the problem will continue to get worse?”
He also stated that 55,000 adults have been “forced into homelessness by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the last decade”.
“55,000 adults is more than the entire population of Longford,” said Ó Broin.
“It is more than the population of the state’s largest town Drogheda. It is more people than a capacity crowd at the Aviva Stadium.”
