Dublin’s four local authorities are facing a budget hole in excess of €10 million due to the spiralling costs of providing homelessness services.
Dublin City Council chief executive Richard Shakespeare has written to the Department of Housing seeking “immediate engagement on this high priority urgent issue” the council said, ahead of the ratification of the city council budget next month.
Homeless services are provided by the four Dublin local authorities through the Dublin Region Homeless Executive. The Department of Housing said it funds “up to 90 per cent” of the cost of the service, but the local authorities must find the balance within their budgets. With the overall cost of the service increasing by millions of euro each year, the sums needed to cover the councils’ proportion have escalated.
“The costs of service provision for homeless persons continue to increase as a result of underlying homeless presentation rates,” a budget briefing document for city councillors said.
For a number of years the four Dublin local authorities have contributed annual funding of €21.98 million for homelessness accommodation services the document said.
“In 2023 expenditure on homeless services rose leaving a balance of €25.3 million to be funded” leaving the councils with a “deficit of €3.3 million” it said. The city council had calculated that by the end of this year homeless expenditure will have risen to a level where the local authorities need to contribute €30 million “leaving potentially in excess of €10 million to be funded by the region,” it said.
“It is expected that the 2025 deficit will be even higher than the projected excess of €10 million in 2024.”
Figures issued by the department less than two weeks ago showed 14,486 people are living in homeless accommodation, a 14 per cent increase from the same period last year. Of these 10,481 were in emergency accommodation in Dublin.
“Dublin provides services to 72 per cent of the adults experiencing homelessness nationally,” the council said. “Homelessness is a national issue, managed locally.”
The increased cost burden of homelessness “should be funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address the increasing level of homelessness in the region and to reduce the impact on the budgets of the Dublin Local Authorities,” it said.
When asked if it would cover the additional costs, a spokesman for the department told The Irish Times it recouped up to 90 of expenditure “appropriately incurred” by local authorities for homeless accommodation and related services.
“Budget 2025 has allocated funding of €303 million for the delivery of homelessness services, which is a 25 per cent increase on the 2024 allocation of €242 million,” he said.
“This funding provision will be kept under continual review in 2025, with a commitment to provide any additional necessary funding required as is the case for 2024.”
