The number of people sleeping rough in Dublin has jumped by 32% over the last year and Monday night saw the highest number of rough sleepers ever recorded.

According to the Dublin Simon Community, 168 people were found to be sleeping rough on Monday night and this figure does not include the 60 people without a bed who stayed in the Merchant's Quay Night Cafe in the city.

"As you walk the streets of Dublin, the numbers of people who are rough sleeping each night is very apparent. We were shocked to see the average number of people bedding down jump from 80 in August 2015 to 106 in August 2016.

"Looking to our numbers this month, we are averaging at 150 so far in September, with the figure at 168 this morning (September 20). This does not include the 60 people in the Merchant's Quay Night Café. These numbers are similar to rough sleeping figures in December 2014, which were the highest since the official counts began," explained Sam McGuinness of the Dublin Simon Community.

He made his comments at the launch of the Dublin Simon Community Annual Report 2015, which revealed that while 10% of people moved out of emergency accommodation into a home last year, there has been a 59% increase in those accessing emergency accommodation.

Furthermore, 59% of people in emergency accommodation have been homeless for more than two years.

"With emergency beds across the city operating at full capacity each night, rapid housing and support for individuals is urgently needed to get people off the streets to safety and to tackle the bottleneck in emergency accommodation," Mr McGuinness noted.

He said that people have become 'trapped in the revolving door of homelessness and the short-term measure of emergency accommodation has become long term'.

"If we look at our emergency services for 2015, there was only a one in 10 chance of moving out of emergency accommodation into a home, with 90% of our residents deemed long-term homeless (longer than six months) and a shocking 59% homeless for more than two years," he pointed out.

Mr McGuinness emphasised the destructive impact that homelessness has on people, including the 'devastating impact' on their health.

He said that the Dublin Simon Community is working tirelessly to deal with this problem with the resources that are available.

"As the numbers of people coming to our door for help continues to dramatically increase, we have utilised our limited resources to provide more accommodation and treatment services. Last year, in all our residential services, we provided over 230,000 meals to people who are homeless.

"We also increased our capacity to house people who are homeless by acquiring 109 additional housing units. Additionally, to strengthen our ability to deliver life-saving accommodation, we introduced our ambitious Capital Development Fund, which plans to deliver 450 more homes for individuals and families to help tackle the homeless crisis into the future," Mr McGuinness said.

Meanwhile, also speaking at the launch of the report, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Brendan Carr, congratulated the staff and volunteers for what they have achieved over the last almost 50 years.

"Staff and volunteers work with clients to address what circumstances brought them to be where they are and provide the emotional, health and financial supports for them to recover from the detrimental impact of homelessness. They give people the key to a new start, helping them leave the trauma of homelessness behind and move towards a future filled with hope," he commented.

For more information on the Simon Community, click here