Give me a crash course in . . . rising homeless figures

How much has homelessness risen by?The number of homeless people in Dublin is up by 26 per cent for the first six months of the year compared with the first six months of 2010.

That's a huge increase in a short space of timeIt is. In addition, the Dublin Simon Community, one of the many organisations that look after homeless people, says it has distributed a third more sleeping bags than over the same period last year.

The streets of Dublin must be thronged with homeless peopleFortunately not. While in percentage terms the increase is clearly dramatic, numerically we're talking about an average of 40 people sleeping rough in Dublin city each night.

Just 40? Surely, with so many organisations, we can sort out somewhere for 40 people to stay at night?There is a large number of organisations, both religious and nonreligious charities and State bodies, tackling homelessness. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive, which replaced the Homeless Agency last July, is the main State body dealing with homelessness. Charities providing accommodation include the Simon Community, Depaul Ireland and Focus Ireland; day services such as meals are provided by organisations such as Trust, the Capuchin Day Centre and Merchants Quay Ireland.

Unfortunately those 40 or so people are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to people sleeping rough, more than 1,000 people are sleeping in emergency accommodation every night, and many of these are sleeping on mattresses on the floors of various facilities. Particularly over the past six months the supply of accommodation by all those involved is being outstripped by demand.

Can't the Government do something about it?The previous government made a commitment to end long-term homelessness and the need for people to sleep rough, by December 2010. The current Government wants to move away from a model where homeless people drift in and out of crisis accommodation, towards greater use of longer-term beds in the private rented sector.

No shortage of space anyway, what with all the vacant houses dotted around NamalandThe National Asset Management Agency may be more of a hindrance than a help on this one. There are about 23,000 vacant properties in the Dublin region alone, but many are tied up in the Nama process and won't be released for social-housing provision for some time. Fewer than a quarter of the 1,200 housing units that were to have been provided in 2010 for the long-term homeless have been delivered.

Can we at least get some people off the street before another hard winter rolls in?There will always be some homeless people who won't or can't access emergency accommodation for various reasons. Many of those working with homeless people say the threshold for acceptance to hostels can be too high, with few places for people with drug and alcohol problems. There is also a shortage of spaces for couples who want to stay together, while some people simply feel safer on the streets than sharing a room with people they don't know.