The number of people who are homeless in Co Wicklow has increased, according to new figures from the Department of Housing.
The statistics show that during the week of June 20, a total of 52 adults were classified as living in emergency accommodation.
This includes, hotels and B&Bs.
The June figure is slightly up on May, where 50 people were recorded as being homeless, while in April there were 47 and in March there was 39.
Nationally there are a total of 10,492 people declared homeless.
Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, said: “The continuing increase in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation is a serious concern. The Government, local authorities and those in our NGO sectors are making every effort to reduce homelessness. Key to this is the delivery of new social housing and boosting overall supply.
“Funding is in place to deliver 10,500 social homes, including 9,000 new build homes, building on the progress made last year when 9,183 new social homes were provided, a 17 per cent increase on 2020.
“Among the recent measures I have introduced to help those at risk of homelessness are changes to the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, to increase the HAP discretion rate to 35% and to expand the couple’s rate to single persons.
“We have also legislated to increase the notice to quit period for no fault evictions. The minimum amount of notice a landlord must give a tenant with a tenancy of less than three years duration before evicting them has now been increased from 28 days to three months.
“I have also made it very clear to Local Authorities that where there is a risk of a tenant(s) being evicted into homelessness as a result of a landlord selling the home that the Local Authority will be supported by the Department to purchase the home should that be appropriate.”
