Clare County Council says emergency accommodation here is ‘reaching capacity’ in certain instances.
The local authority says it now has a waiting list at times to access accommodation, with nearly 200 presentations to its homeless services last month.
The Department of Housing documented 58 people in Clare as homeless at the end of April.
However, it appears that figure isn’t telling the true extent of the story on the ground here, with 192 presentations to Clare County Council’s Homeless Action Team between the 21st of April and the 19th of May.
15 percent of those were new presentations to the service.
The overall number is more than double the number of presentations to this county’s Homeless Action Team in the previous month.
Clare County Council has told Clare FM that there is a ‘sustained and increasing demand for emergency accommodation with limited supply’ locally.
It says ‘capacity has been reached’ in recent times, and they have had to implement waiting lists for access to emergency accommodation.
However, the local authority says similar issues in Limerick are not impacting Clare’s services, and that there is ‘no overspill’ between the two counties.
There’s been a total of 854 presentations to the Homeless Action Team in Clare so far in 2022, with 154 of those being new presentations.
Statement from Clare County Council
Clare Homeless Action Team continue to work to meet the accommodation needs of those presenting as homeless in the county, there is sustained and increasing demand for emergency accommodation with limited supply. Capacity has been reached in instances and to that end we have at times a waiting list for access to emergency accommodation.
It should be noted there is no overspill from Limerick City and County Council into Clare, while the Authorities work closely together clients of Clare and Limerick are supported by the relevant authority in which they are approved for social housing support.’
