Forty homeless people have died in the Dublin region so far this year, according to figures from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE).
There has been a rise in the number of homeless deaths in the capital over recent years, up from 24 in 2018 to 56 last year. There were 64 deaths recorded in 2021, the highest over the past six years.
The figures, provided to The Irish Times, are deaths recorded for those accessing DRHE-funded emergency accommodation and/or rough sleeping across Dublin’s four local authorities.
There were 25 deaths in 2019, and almost twice as many (47) in 2020. There were 45 deaths recorded in 2022.
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DRHE operates under the aegis of Dublin City Council, as the lead statutory local authority in the response to homelessness in Dublin, and adopts a shared service approach across South Dublin County Council, Fingal County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
In a statement Dublin Simon Community said increasing numbers of people in emergency accommodation and rough sleeping was a direct reflection of the “deepening crisis”.
Deaths this year include that of Ann Delaney (47), a mother and nurse from Co Laois, who had been sleeping rough close to a Tesco supermarket on Aungier Street in Dublin city centre last February. Her funeral heard that family, friends and professionals offered repeated support but she sadly “would not accept the help”.
Last July, the bodies of Donal Scanlon (49) from Co Kerry and Alex Warnick (42), who was originally from the US, were found in the Grand Canal.
The men had been sleeping in two tents close to where their bodies were recovered from the canal. Foul play was not suspected with gardaí treating it as a tragic accident.
A report from the Health Research Board (HRB) earlier this year showed that 121 people who were homeless died in 2020, an increase from 92 the previous year.
The HRB’s report was based on national data from closed coronial files. Its analysis showed that those who died while homeless were much younger than the Irish average at the time of their death, with a median age of 36.5 for women and 42 for men.
Almost all who died had a history of substance use or dependency, and there was a high prevalence of mental health and medical conditions.
Poisoning was the cause of nearly six in 10 deaths, with the most common drugs implicated in such deaths being opioids (mainly heroin and methadone), followed by benzodiazepines and cocaine.
Other causes of death included cardiovascular conditions and suicide.
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