A local housing charity has warned of a critical winter ahead after the number of people in Emergency Accommodation across Galway, Mayo and Roscommon hit near-record levels at the end of September.

Galway Simon Community – which has supported 615 households, including 672 adults and 272 children from January to July of this year – fears the situation will continue to get worse over the coming winter.

The latest Emergency Accommodation figures released by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government showed there were 572 people in Emergency Accommodation across Galway, Mayo and Roscommon at the end of September, including 352 adults and 220 children.

The total is just four below the highest number of people ever in Emergency Accommodation in the West and reflects the ongoing housing crisis, cost of living increases and the lifting of the moratorium on evictions earlier this year.

Most shockingly, the number of children in Emergency Accommodation in the west is at a record level.

Karen Golden, CEO of Galway Simon Community, highlighted the scale of the deepening crisis.

“It is heartbreaking to see the number of adults and children in Emergency Accommodation in the West increasing again,” she said.

“We also know that the Emergency Accommodation figures reported on each month do not represent the true extent of the homelessness crisis.

“Only a very small number of the people that we support are represented in these figures.

“With the demand for secure and affordable housing continuing to outstrip supply, our frontline Services are anticipating an even further increase in homelessness over the coming months,” she added.

Ms Golden revealed that, in the first seven months of this year Galway Simon has supported more households than they did in the whole of 2018.

“Unfortunately, this crisis is widespread across Galway, Mayo and Roscommon and we are seeing this on a day-to-day basis in our Services, through increased referrals,” she said.

“People are being left with no options, many having to sleep on sofas of loved ones or enter into Emergency Accommodation. The trauma being experienced by people facing homelessness is horrendous,” she added.

The Galway Simon CEO described the housing market in Ireland as broken.

“Residential property prices across our region continue to grow and rents in private rented accommodation have seen 20%+ annual increases across Galway, Mayo and Roscommon from the second quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of this year,” she said.

“As our September “Locked Out of Market Report” showed there was only one property to rent in Galway city within Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits over the three days of the survey. People are having to choose between everyday necessities like food, heat and electricity and paying their rent. This coupled with the slow pace of social housing build means there is a greater need for Homelessness Prevention Services than ever before,” she added.