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22 Oct 2025

Homeless figures in Kilkenny stagnate as national figures hit record high

Homeless figures in Kilkenny remain stagnant as national figures hit record high

Rough sleepers and 'hidden homeless' not included in Department's figures

There were 39 people recorded as being homeless in Kilkenny during the last full week of July, according to the recently published August Homeless Report from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

This figure remains unchanged from the previous report (39) and places Kilkenny as the fourth-highest county for individual homelessness in the South-East, behind Waterford (73), Tipperary (56) and Wexford (47).

Only Carlow (35) recorded fewer cases in the region.

Across the South-East region, 250 people accessed emergency accommodation in July.

27 families were homeless, comprising 35 adults and 46 children. Most of those accessing emergency accommodation were Irish.

The 25-44 age group were the most significant group, with 142 people from this age cohort recorded as homeless in the South-East region.

Nationally, the number of adults and children who are homeless has reached a new record high of 10,568 - as housing charities warned that an urgent response is needed to prevent the crisis from worsening.

The previous peak for the Department of Housing’s official figures was in October 2019, when 10,514 people were recorded as being in emergency accommodation.

The Department’s latest monthly figures show there are 7,431 adults and 3,137 children who are in accommodation for people who are homeless across Ireland.

This comes after a record high number of young adults were registered as homeless in April, when the number of homeless people passed the 10,000 threshold for the first time since the pandemic began.

The Government is currently grappling with a lack of accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and a squeeze on affordable student accommodation this autumn exacerbated by the long-running housing crisis.

Despite being a worthwhile indicator, these statistics actually fail to reflect the full extent of the local and national homeless crisis.

This is because government homeless statistics relate only to households provided with emergency accommodation by the local authorities.

They do not include households frequently described as the ‘hidden homeless’ that may be sleeping rough, living in refuges, or staying with parents, relatives and friends in overcrowded conditions.

The Department of Housing’s homelessness statistics are published on a monthly basis.

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