Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Deputy Pearse Doherty, has described as ‘alarming’ the latest data from the Department of Housing which has revealed a 33 per cent rise in adult homelessness in Donegal.
The figure is back on the four weeks between December last to the end of January.
The figures, which are contained in the Department’s monthly Homelessness Report, also show that out of the 41 adults classified as being homeless here in the Northwest region, which comprises counties Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo, almost half of those adults now reside in Donegal.
Commenting on the figures, Deputy Doherty said: “The latest homelessness report from the Department of Housing shows that during the week of 23rd to 29th January 2017, there were a total of 20 homeless adults accessing local authority managed emergency accommodation.
“That figure is up from 15 adults who last month had been identified as homeless in the week prior to Christmas 2016 – that’s an increase of 33 per cent.
“When we look at the January data for the Northwest region as a whole, which comprises counties Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo, we see that of the region’s 41 homeless adults, 20 of those were forced to access emergency accommodation services here in Donegal alone.
“And if we compare those figures to neighbouring counties in the south which are also listed in the report, we begin to see that Donegal has a much greater homelessness problem relative to counties Monaghan and Cavan, where one and three adults respectively were reported to have accessed emergency accommodation.
“Clearly, this data reveals that the homelessness crisis is not simply an urban problem and that, more and more, what we are discovering is that rural counties too such as Donegal are experiencing homelessness at a much more acute level than previously.
“What this alarming data also proves is that, far from working to resolve the problem of homelessness and the social housing crisis bracing the state, the government is instead burying its head in the sand while its housing policy fails the most disadvantaged in our society.”
