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Study finds almost 25% of homeless parents are aged between 18 and 24

Study finds almost 25% of homeless parents are aged between 18 and 24

Around a quarter of homeless parents are aged between 18 and 24.

New research commissioned by Focus Ireland shows they are often stigmatised and find it extremely difficult to find a home.

Some young parents often leave their own home because of overcrowding and conflict.

But then they find it extremely difficult to find somewhere to rent as they have no references for landlords, so they end up in emergency accommodation.

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Niamh Lambe from Focus Ireland said young families struggle in hotel rooms.

She said: "They are living in very cramped conditions. They may have been displaced from their home of origin, they may be travelling across the city to get to schools.

"Their cooking facilities may not be there, no space to store anything, to do homework and so on."

The latest homeless figures show just over 9,700 people were in emergency accommodation in October but Sinn Féin claims the figure is around 3,000 more than that.

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Their housing spokesperson Eoin O’Broin is accusing the Government of deliberately hiding some people from the statistics.

Mr O'Broin said: "So these people are homeless and all of the State agencies, bar the Department and all of the academic experts and NGOs who work in this field are saying the same thing."

When it comes to young homeless parents, the author of this Focus Ireland research, Dr Sharon Lambert, said society needs to stop saying "well why did they have children if they can’t afford it?" and show some compassion.

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