Councils have been asked to remove those living in temporary emergency accommodation arrangements from the March homeless report, according to Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin.

The Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy claimed that 600 people were wrongly deemed homeless in previous reports.

Minister Murphy has been accused of publishing false homeless figures following these claims.

Mr Ó Broin has urged the Minister to admit the wrong-doing: "I am satisfied that the Ministers claim is false. These people, including many families with children are homeless and are in emergency accommodation arrangements funded by Council’s homeless services."

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Mr Ó Broin outlined the homeless problem for families: "Due to the dramatic rise in the number of families presenting as homeless and the lack of adequate emergency accommodation, Councils across the country have had to develop ad hoc temporary emergency accommodation arrangements using a range of property types. None of these arrangements involve tenancy agreements. Rather, families are placed in temporary accommodation, while the Council or voluntary sector organisations seek to secure the families permanent housing.

"It is clear that Minister Murphy did not want the March figures to reflect the reality across the state, namely that levels of homelessness continued to rise and had finally breached the 10,000 number. Given that he claimed on Monday that most of the 600 people allegedly miscategorised have now been removed, it is clear that the true March figure is well in excess of 10,000."

He has called for the Minister to clarify the situation and republish the March homeless figures including those living in temporary emergency accommodation arrangements.

(CM/MH)