Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, is concerned with today’s homeless figures. The October figures, released this afternoon by the Department of Housing, show that 11,397 people were homeless.

Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, “October’s homeless figures are concerning – it’s difficult to see any increase in the number of people in homelessness. The high number of people presenting as a result of private evictions is further evidence of the need for the winter moratorium on evictions. The no-fault ban – which only came into effect this month – should reduce the number of people coming into homelessness and gives us a window of opportunity to ramp up delivery.”

“The eviction moratorium is in place from November to the end of March, during that time Peter McVerry Trust is aiming to deliver 300 new social homes. These additional homes will allow us to support more people out of homelessness and increase our Housing First programme – which currently has the highest number of people successfully retaining their tenancy in 10 years.

“We want to make sure that every unit that can be secured for social housing is secured and that we continue to work as quickly and effectively as possible to grow key responses such as Housing First and reduce the number of people in homelessness right across Ireland.”