Housing charities criticise new rent rules as homelessness figures rise

Homelessness charities have warned of a “truly shocking” scale of evictions coinciding with the introduction of the Government’s rent reforms, as homelessness figures hit yet another record high on Friday.

Opposition parties also criticised the Taoiseach’s comments linking migration with rising homelessness figures as “shameful” and “an absolute disgrace”.

The number of people using emergency accommodation rose to 17,548 in April, an increase from 17,517 the previous month according to the Department of Housing’s official figures.

The total is made up of 11,944 adults and 5,604 children, an increase of 33 children on the previous month.

Over 12 months since April 2025, there has been a 12.6% increase in the number of people in emergency accommodation.

The number of people accessing emergency accommodation has been increasing steadily for years.

The monthly figures published by the Department of Housing do not account for people sleeping rough or those staying in hospitals, asylum centres or domestic violence shelters.

The April figures come after the Government’s rental reforms on six-year tenancies came into effect in March.

Chief executive of Focus Ireland Pat Dennigan said the Government had done “absolutely nothing” to help thousands of people facing eviction as rents were expected to rise under the new reforms.

“The scale of evictions and the misery it will create is truly shocking, with more than 7,000 notices issued in the first three months of the year,” he said.

“This points to the intense and growing pressure facing renters and underlines the strain on the housing system created by over a decade of failed housing policies.”

He added: “Government argues that this is a once-off adjustment as a specific group of landlords sell up in response to the new tenant protections.

“However, if that is the case, it strengthens the case for a once-off but substantial boost in tenant in situ funding.

“As many of the notice to quits will have weeks to run, it is not too late to introduce such a protective measure to prevent families and individuals from being pushed into homelessness during this period.”

Ber Grogan, executive director of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said landlords who have raised rents since the rental reforms were announced should be among those putting solutions forward to end homelessness.

She welcomed the decrease in homelessness among single households as well as those who are over the age of 65.

“Since the changes to rent regulations were announced last summer, the Simon Communities of Ireland has been warning that the extortionate prices of rent, and not addressing the affordability of rents, would lead to higher numbers of people being forced to experience the trauma of homelessness.

“Headlines stating that ‘rents rise’ make it sound as though rents are increasing automatically, in a vacuum.

“The reality is that there are people behind the decisions to keep raising rents.

“More accurate headlines and debates in the Dail would be ‘landlords raise rents to highest ever levels’.

“Why are large landlords exempt from putting forward solutions to end the homeless crisis when they are a direct cause of rising numbers?

“We will only end homelessness by having all stakeholders at the table. Unless the Government, local authorities, landlords and homeless services come together to address the issue, we will continue to see more people entering homelessness each month.”

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said on Friday that “pressures are rising from the migration side” in relation to homelessness.

“I get criticised when I say this, but I think the composition of homelessness today is significantly different to homelessness even five years ago or a decade ago,” he said at the Bloom garden festival in Dublin.

“We had a meeting yesterday in terms of measures that we have to take, and the Minister (for Housing James Browne) is close to the completion of a homeless action plan, which is quite comprehensive, involving quite a number of government departments, but fundamentally pressures are rising from the migration side.

“More people are leaving Direct Provision, for example, and some don’t immediately get the necessary accommodation.

“That’s a fact, but there’s multiple factors underpinning this, but it’s a far different story, and more complex than it would have been in previous times.”

Labour TD Conor Sheehan said that the new housing figures were a “shocking new record” that was “directly caused” by the Irish Government’s housing policies.

He criticised the Taoiseach’s comments, which he made earlier in the week, and said it was a “false correlation” and accused the government of “gaslighting in terms of migration in order to get away with it”.

“For the Taoiseach to come in and to make that false correlation again is absolutely, number 1, disingenuous, but it is also shameful given the fact that things in this country have become so dangerous for migrants in the last couple of months and years.

“The Taoiseach should not be making these sort of assertions.”

Sinn Fein housing spokesman Eoin O Broin said if actions are not taken urgently, the homeless crisis would “continue to get worse”.

“There is one single cause of homelessness and that’s the failure of the state to ensure an adequate supply of social and affordable private homes,” Mr O Broin said.

“That is the single and only cause of homelessness.

“When I used to work in homeless services, government used to blame addiction, mental health, relationship breakdown as causes of homelessness.

“Of course they’re not, they’re crises that people have, but it’s the failure of the state to ensure an adequate supply of homes, which leads those people into homelessness.

“Over the last decade, Micheal Martin in particular, but Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have tried to blame everybody else.

“They’ve blamed Covid, they blamed Brexit, they blamed the war in Ukraine, they blamed the rising cost of fuel and now the Taoiseach seems to be blaming homeless people who happen to be born in another country for rising rates of homelessness.

“It is not only factually wrong, it is an absolute disgrace.

“The cause of this rising homelessness crisis over the last decade is the failed housing policies of Micheal Martin and Simon Harris and their parties.

“Why is Micheal Martin saying this? Because he has no other excuses.”