Census figures on Galway's ‘rough sleepers’ already out of date
There were 13 people recorded as ‘rough sleepers’ in Galway City on the night the 2016 Census was enumerated.
However, a Galway City Council spokesperson has conceded that since that night on April 24, the number of people sleeping rough has multiplied.
“It has quadrupled since then . . . but it depends on the night you do the count,” said a spokesperson.
He said the number of rough sleepers on any given night in the city fluctuates. And he suggested that anecdotally, people are coming by bus from Dublin to sleep rough in Galway. When a count was done recently in the city, there were up to 40 rough sleepers, he said.
The City Council informed the Central Statistics Office of the 13 people who were sleeping rough on Census night, in order to feed into the national data in relation to homelessness.
The local authority said there were no reports from Roscommon or Mayo of any rough sleepers on that night, suggesting the homelessness problem in the west is concentrated in the city.
The latest Census data released this week reveals that there were 189 homeless people in the West (Galway, Mayo and Roscommon). Two-thirds of these were men, and the rest (70) were women.
Nationally, 6,906 people were categorised as homeless, according to the Census.
The average age of the homeless population was 31 years compared with 37 years for the general population. Of the 6,906 homeless persons counted in Census 2016, 1,846 persons were aged 0-17 years, with 1,594 being children in family units. A further 413 persons (6%) were aged 60 and over.
On a marital status basis, 55% of homeless persons aged 15 and above were single, compared with 41% of the general population. While almost 48% of the general population were married or remarried, only 9% of those homeless were. The rate of separation and divorce was just above twice that of the general population – just over 12% compared to 6%.
Of the 5,212 homeless persons aged 15 and over, 2,915 (56%) were in the labour force, of whom 899 (31%) were employed. A further 2,016 (69%) were either unemployed or looking for a first job. There were 607 persons who were unable to work due to permanent sickness or disability, representing 12% of the total, compared with 4.2% of the general population.
Students accounted for 429 persons (8%), while 188 persons stated that they were retired. Among those who indicated their nationality, non-Irish nationals accounted for 14%, compared with 11.6% of the general population.
Just 62% of the homeless considered their health to be good/very good, compared to 87% of the general population. Conversely, 19% indicated their health was fair/bad/very bad, almost double the 9.6% of the general population.
Meanwhile, the Green Party said the Government is facing an accommodation and housing time bomb, on top of the current housing crisis, after the Census figures revealed that there are 458,874 persons aged 18 and over living with their parents.
Party leader Eamon Ryan TD said: “The crisis in housing supply is laid bare by these latest Census figures. Almost half a million young people over the age of 18 are still living at home with their parents. Of that number, 180,703 were at work. Due to spiralling rents and soaring house prices, moving out of home is simply out of reach for many young people.
“These young people are forgotten about in the context of the housing crisis. While living at home with parents is fine in the short term, the Government will be facing an even worse crisis if and when these young people decide to move out.”