Cllr Michael Dollard has said people in danger of homelessness in Westmeath were in “dire straights” as homelessness within the county increased by 31% in the last 12 months.
The increase of nearly a third in Westmeath from August 2023 to August 2024, calculated through data on monthly homelessness reports published by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, is more than double the national homelessness increase of 14% in the same timeframe.
There were 71 people listed as homeless in Westmeath in the August 2024 monthly report compared to 54 in August 2023.
Homelessness in Westmeath makes up nearly half the total of all homelessness in the Midlands region. Offaly has the second highest numbers of homelessness in the Midlands with 45 people, followed by Laois at 24, and Longford at 12.
Westmeath ranks 13th in the county list of highest numbers of homelessness in the country. Outside of Dublin, Cork has the highest numbers of homeless people, with 547, followed by Limerick at 447.
TENTS, SLEEPING ROUGH AND COUCHSURFING
Cllr Dollard told Topic that the housing crisis and Mullingar’s location in Ireland were reasons for why homelessness was increasing in Westmeath.
He said: “You have an over-demand and under-supply of residential property. I am dealing with people who are ringing me up and they are in dire straights.
“We need to build more houses and make more units available. A lot of landlords, for various reasons, are selling up and getting out of the rental market which means in affect that you have less accommodation available for renting out.”
Cllr Dollard also spoke of how he had heard homeless people were surviving in Westmeath. He commented: “I am hearing on the grapevine that you have a lot of people who are in a tent or sleeping rough. They are actually couch-surfing if you would like now, sleeping on sitting room couches and things like that.”
