THE NUMBER of children who are now homeless in Limerick and the Mid West region has soared from 225 this time last year to 341 last month.
That’s according to the latest official figures from the Department of Housing, which records the numbers of people accessing homeless emergency accommodation up to the last week of April 2026.
The latest figures show that the number of adult homeless people in the Mid West has also jumped considerably, with 730 people recorded as experiencing homelessness, 633 of them in Limerick.
In the same month last year, there were 583 homeless adults in the Mid West and 496 of them were in Limerick.
This April, 206 families accessed emergency accommodation in the Mid West. The figure for April last year was 143.
The Mid West figures are the second highest outside of Dublin.
Nationally, the records show there were 17,548 people without a home to call their own across Ireland.
In a statement on the latest figures, David Carroll, chief executive of Depaul, said the scale of this crisis is like nothing we have seen before.
“The just released numbers show that as of April 2026 17,548 people are living through the burden of homelessness, including 11,944 individuals, 5,604 children, who are accessing local authority managed short-term, emergency accommodation,” he said.
“While these numbers are hugely disappointing, we are also mindful that they do not include the full extent of the issue including the 5,000+ individuals, with permission to remain, who are currently stuck in IPAS emergency accommodation. Of those, more than 1,000 have received letters requiring them to leave IPAS accommodation this summer. Without intervention, many of those affected—despite having refugee status or permission to remain—are at serious risk of ending up in homelessness.”
Mr Carroll said that “Depaul also notes that the increase in the April homeless numbers also relates to the hugely overburdened private rental market which is a key instrument in any homelessness prevention plan”.
“We believe we are now beginning to see the real fallout from the rental legislation introduced in 2025 and the issue of affordability for families and individuals struggling to find accommodation in their price range.
“We are also hearing of a rise in smaller landlords selling up across Ireland which is intensifying pressure on the rental market and leaving a growing shortage of homes available to rent to this cohort. Leaving a market made up more and more by large institutional landlords.”