1,039 people are registered homeless with county council

MORE than 1,000 people are currently registered homeless with South Dublin County Council, with the three family hubs in the county now at full capacity.

The current lowest average time on the homeless list for the 160 households who presented as homeless at the same time as first applying for social housing support is at two-and-a-half years for a three-bed.

Families seeking a four-bedroom property will need to wait four-and-a-half years while the average wait time for one-beds sits at 3.7-years and at 2.6-years for two-beds according to the council.

These figures were presented at the recent monthly meeting of the local authority, the council highlighting that they “represent an analysis of the time on the list of certain currently homeless households only”.

Offers of social housing tenancies based on homeless priority depend on various factors.

These factors include bedroom requirement, areas of preference, supports required, time in homelessness and on the social housing list.

As of May 2022, 494 households, comprising of 612 adults and 427 children, were on the council’s homeless register.

This breaks down into 247 single males, 62 single females, 22 couples, and 163 families.

44 of these families are currently awaiting family hub accommodation in self-accommodate facilities.

The three family hubs currently in operation in South Dublin County are High Street Family Hub at the Abberley, Firhouse Family Hub and Springfield Family Hub.

High Street Family Hub is a privately managed facility with 58 rooms, which is currently fully occupied with 54 households.

It is the same story at the Firhouse and Springfield facilities, which are managed by Respond Housing and are fully occupied accommodating 20 households and 12 households respectively.

In conjunction with the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, the council “continue to explore potential options for additional hubs in the county”.

According to the council, “family hubs are not intended as a long-term accommodation solutions but they are an important response for households that become homeless and have no alternative”.

Between January and May of this year, 26 homeless households were allocated permanent social housing tenancies with the council or an approved housing body.