They show that a total of 14,966 people had used emergency accommodation services in the last week of October, including 4,645 children in 2,161 families. The total was up 210 on the previous month.
There were 10,321 adults using emergency services, 7,388 of them in Dublin, of which 6,733 – or almost two out of three – were single. The adult figure was up 122 on the October data.
There were 2,161 families, 1,245 of them single-parent.
The publication of the data by department comes at a somewhat inopportune time for the Government parties, with about half of all voters still to cast their ballot in the general election. Eoin O’Broin, the Sinn Fein housing spokesperson, tweeted: “Homelessness up again. Another record high.”
Darragh O’Brien, the Housing Minister, had faced criticism for not publishing the October figures on emergency accommodation before polling day, however.
While the statistics are traditionally produced on the last Friday of the month, there had been calls for this to change in November in order to give the electorate maximum information before going to the polls today.
The minister said the statistical process was independent of him, and declined to give even indicative figures, saying the data has to be “independently verified”.
The figures compiled by his department show the number of people who have used emergency accommodation services in the last week of the preceding month.
David Carroll, chief executive of Depaul, said it was calling on any new government to take radical action as homelessness numbers hit the record levels. “Behind these numbers are men, women, and children living without a home and the impact on them is devastating,” he said.
“The time has passed for inaction or indecision – we are now faced with levels of homelessness we have never witnessed before. Where once 10,000 was thought to be unacceptable – it is hard to understand why we are now accepting this new level of 14,966.
“Little seems to be cutting through or making it high up on the list of priorities – but the future of 4,645 children trapped in the cycle of homelessness is now in the hands of any new government and they must adopt a swift and radical approach to addressing this national crisis.”
Housing has been a key issue in the general election campaign, although it did not dominate as much as in the last contest, in 2020. The Government parties were able to point to a pick-up in housing commencements this year, with the Department of publishing the latest statistics during the campaign.
These show that 4,249 homes were commenced last month, bringing the total for the year to date to 53,256.
In October, homelessness also reached a new record, totalling 14,760 people, including 4,561 children in 2,133 families. There were 10,199 adults accessing emergency accommodation, of whom 6,681 were alone and without children.
Those figures represented a 15pc increase in a year, including a 17pc increase in child homelessness since the previous September.