€10m extra spent on homeless services in 2024

Cork City Council spent over €30 million on services for households experiencing homelessness in 2024, an almost €10 million increase compared to figures from 2023.

The figures were released on Monday as part of a collaborative project by FOCUS Ireland and Trinity College Dublin’s School of Social Work and Social Policy.

The report collated information for local authorities across the south-west – Cork city and county councils, and Kerry County Council. In total across the region, annual expenditure on homelessness has increased by 104.4% since 2020 (€21.1m), and 570.6% since 2009 (€6.4m).

Cork City Council accounts for 71.1% of this expenditure as of 2024.

Last year, a further €33.1 million was spent by authorities in the south-west on homeless services, primarily homeless accommodation. This funding came from the Department of Housing under Section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988 – emergency accommodation now accounts for around 80% of this funding.

According to Prof. Eoin O’Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin, a significant issue is people entering emergency accommodation and becoming stuck there.

“While the monthly numbers are going up, there’s an awful lot of churn in the system. A lot of people are entering and then leaving again quite quickly, but a significant amount of people are becoming stuck,” he said.

Of particular concern is the complete collapse of the private rental sector as an avenue for escape from homelessness. In 2021, the proportion of people leaving into private rental accommodation was 43.6%, in 2024 this had dropped to just 7.7% as of 2025.

The main solution, said FOCUS Ireland’s Head of Advocacy Niamh Allen, is the provision of adequate numbers of social homes by local authorities and approved housing bodies.

“It’s clear that there’s been a massive overreliance on the private housing sector to get people out of homelessness, and the rates of people re-entering homelessness from the private sector are significantly higher than they are in the public sector.

“It’s not fair to expect people to leave emergency accommodation into what is just another very unstable environment. The rates of re-entry from social housing are significantly lower,” she added.

"We would be strong advocates for its expansion as a solution,” she said.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.