Official count of winter rough sleepers in Dublin finds slight annual decrease

An official winter count of people rough sleeping in the Dublin region has recorded 91 individuals, a slight annual decrease of 3 per cent.

The annual Winter Rough Sleeper Count is organised by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) and carried out by the Dublin Simon Community Outreach Team with support from the Peter McVerry Trust Housing First Intake Team.

It was carried out over the week ending November 13th, 2022. The same number of individuals were counted during the spring.

For the winter week, additional outreach workers were deployed to ensure “intense coverage” of city centre areas. Information was also provided by Dublin’s local authorities and An Garda Síochána, particularly relating to isolated areas.

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Most of those encountered – 87 of 91 – had previously been assessed by the DRHE for homeless services.

The majority of those already known to the Executive were male, Irish and aged between 26 and 45. Just under a quarter (24 per cent) were using tents and 12 individuals had also been documented in the previous spring count.

In the November count, 29 individuals, or one third of the total, had an emergency accommodation booking they had not used.

“It can take several intensive engagements by the Outreach team with people who are rough sleeping to support them into emergency accommodation, but in the vast majority of cases the team are successful in doing so within a short time frame,” the DRHE said on Tuesday, adding that the number of people rough sleeping in the Dublin region changes from night to night.

“While there is a core group who regularly sleep rough, that may or may not engage with services, there is a larger group that move between rough sleeping, accessing emergency accommodation, sleeping in insecure accommodation, and staying with family or friends.”