The impact of homelessness and inadequate housing on children’s health and wellbeing

Invited Speaker at multi disciplinary 2 day conference focussing on Ireland homelessness crisis. In Ireland, 1 in 11 children lives in consistent poverty, children have the highest risk of poverty of any age group. Until recently despite pervasive child poverty child and family homelessness was rare. In the last decade with increasing rents and reduced housing stock, family homelessness has become prevalent. There are approximately 2500 homeless children in Ireland at present (May 2021). These are children who are known to the local authorities and confirmed to be homeless. They are usually placed in temporary or emergency accommodation in B&B, hotel or family hub settings. There are a further 2000 children in the International Protection system residing in Direct Provision (DP) settings or increasingly, in emergency accommodation when DP is at capacity. There are many thousands more children living in substandard, inadequate and overcrowded housing. There are no official numbers of these children and they are therefore sometimes referred to as the ‘hidden homeless’.