Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, welcomes a further reduction in the number of people recorded as homeless. The November 2020 figure revealed a monthly decrease of 243 people, meaning that over the last 12 months the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has reduced by 1,964, or 19%.

Pat Doyle CEO of Peter McVerry Trust said, “The November figure continues the overall downward trend for 2020. It has been a year of enormous challenges for society, but the silver lining for people in homelessness is that housing has become more readily available and fewer households have lost their homes this year.”

“There has been a huge amount of work done by local authorities and housing associations to provide pathways to housing for people impacted by homelessness. Peter McVerry Trust has been able to help 1,300 people secure a home and this week alone 17 single people and families will move into a home in time for Christmas.”

“Given the year we have had due to Covid-19 and the many difficult years we have had in addressing homelessness it certainly gives us hope that we have made such a dent in the figures this year and ultimately more people have found homes and left homelessness behind.”