Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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736. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of adults and children that have spent time living in emergency accommodation or have registered as homeless in each year since 2014; the length of time they have been in emergency accommodation or homeless by headings (details supplied) in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52608/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 736 and 770 together.

My Department publishes a monthly report on homelessness. The monthly report is based on data provided by housing authorities on a regional basis and produced through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System.  The report captures details of individuals utilising State-funded emergency accommodation arrangements that are overseen by housing authorities.  The most recent homelessness figures show that 6,688 adults and 3,826 associated dependants, including 1,733 families, accessed emergency accommodation nationwide during the final week of October. Monthly reports from 2014 onward are available on my Department’s website at the following link: .

The monthly reports submitted by the local authorities to my Department do not currently provide detailed information on the length of time spent by individuals and families in emergency accommodation. However, the latest information drawn from a separate local authority performance reporting mechanism shows that 38% of adults in emergency accommodation at the end of September 2019 had been there for less than six months.  Additional data provided by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, again as at end September 2019, shows that 60% of families and 55% of dependants had been in emergency accommodation for less than a year.  The reports submitted to my Department by the local authorities will be enhanced early next year to provide additional information in this regard.

The following table sets out the duration of time spent by adults in emergency accommodation in each region at the end of Quarter 3 2019.

Quarter 3 Duration in Emergency Accommodation - Regional Breakdown