The number of families who are homeless in Dublin has exceeded 1,000 for the first time, a new report has shown.

According to the report from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, during the week September 19-25, there were 1,014 homeless families in Dublin.

A further 159 families in other parts of the country were also registered as homeless during this period, bringing the total to 1,173 homeless families nationwide.

The report revealed that these homeless families included 2,425 children, 2,065 of whom were in Dublin. The majority of these are living in emergency accommodation in hotels.

"There have been significant increases in rates of homelessness in recent times...The root cause of increased homelessness is the supply shortage across the housing sector, which in turn is a result of the recent economic collapse and the associated damage to the construction sector," the report noted.

It stated that ‘much is being done to address homelessness and to secure sustainable tenancies for homeless households', adding that Rebuilding Ireland - the Government's action plan for housing and homelessness - aims to tackle homelessness ‘in a comprehensive manner'.

"The action plan is designed to accelerate all types of housing supply - social, private and rental. Over the next six years, some 47,000 new social houses will be provided and housing output generally will be progressively increased towards the target of producing 25,000 houses per year through all channels," the report said.

Responding to the report, homeless charity, Focus Ireland, pointed out that in September alone, 65 families became newly homeless in Dublin. Furthermore, since the beginning of the year, 736 families, including 1,389 children, have become homeless in Dublin.

"We need to stop the constant flow of families and single people becoming homeless. Our frontline staff have seen first-hand that the two key reasons families are becoming homeless is one, landlords are selling up and getting out of the business, and two, rising rents. Both these issues are within the power of the Government to tackle and while they have taken some actions, they have clearly not done enough, fast enough," commented Focus Ireland director of advocacy, Mike Allen.

He added that these are not just figures and statistics.

"Behind every figure is a person - a family, a man, a woman, a child, each of whom is suffering the ongoing trauma of being homeless every day."