Cost of emergency accommodation in Dublin has more than doubled since 2021
Annual spending on emergency accommodation in Dublin more than doubled between 2021 and 2024, new figures reveal.
In the Draft Dublin Region Homeless Action Plan 2025-2027, provided to Dublin city councillors, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) revealed the cost of emergency accommodation rose from €29m-a-year in 2014, to €270m ten years later.
People in emergency accommodation are primarily placed in hostels, bed and breakfasts and hotels, and may be placed in family hubs if they become homeless through the loss of their rental accommodation.
Emergency accommodation accounted for more than 88pc of the €305m homeless expenditure in Dublin in 2024, up from 80pc in 2021 and 58pc in 2014.
By comparison, only 4pc of last year’s homelessness budget, or €12.8m, was allocated to long-term housing provision.
Speaking at this week’s monthly meeting of Dublin City Council, Social Democrats councillor Lesley Byrne said the surge in emergency accommodation costs was “insane”.
Mary Hayes, Director of DRHE, said spending on other homelessness services had risen, but that those increases were “absolutely dwarfed” by ballooning emergency accommodation costs.
“That goes to some of the reasons we’re trying to switch to acquisition models or other models,” she said.
“We will not take our eye off the ball in terms of moving people out of emergency accommodation.”
Another matter raised by councillors was the continued rise in the number of people registered as homeless in the capital.
“At the end of the day, homelessness has reached record proportions,” said councillor Pat Dunne.
“When we look at the May 2025 figures, we have a total of 11,323 in the Dublin regional area homeless, of which 3,500 of those are children.”
The Independents 4 Change member said it was “vital” that child homelessness in particular was addressed, saying the impacts of institutionalisation affect them for life.
Councillors also rounded on the opening statement of the DRHE report, which says: “This plan won’t end homelessness by 2028.”
Green Party councillor Janet Horner insisted “it is possible to end homelessness”.
“We cannot do it without the effective support from the government side,” she said.
“We need to continue to emphasise where the gap lies between what we can achieve as a local authority, and what needs to happen for us to actually solve the problem we’ve been tasked with.”
Ms Hayes said the opening statement was not intended to be “defeatist”, but that some of the drivers and solutions to homelessness were outside of the council’s control.
“We’re just acknowledging that when we write the plan,” she said.
Ms Hayes added that 90pc of the homeless costs borne by the DRHE were later recouped from the Department of Housing.
The DRHE is the lead authority on addressing homelessness in the Dublin area. While it has input from the four local authorities in Dublin, it is led by Dublin City Council (DCC).