More than 200 children became newly homeless in Dublin in July, new figures from Focus Ireland have shown.

According to the charity, 99 families with 214 children were made newly homeless in July, the second highest monthly figure since it started recording family homeless figures in January 2013.

The highest monthly figure was recorded in January 2016, when 125 families were made newly homeless.

There are now 1,178 families homeless in Dublin and these include 2,423 children.

Nationally, 2,895 children are homeless, making up one-third of all homeless cases.

"These latest Focus Ireland figures clearly show the homeless crisis is continuing to deepen as the 99 families newly homeless in Dublin is a record high for the past 18 months. We had seen a drop in the numbers of families becoming homeless every month at the end of last year and earlier this year, but this is no longer the case, and we are back to constantly rising numbers every month," commented Focus Ireland advocacy director, Mike Allen.

With almost 8,000 people homeless nationwide, he described the current situation as the ‘worst homelessness crisis in living memory'.

"Years of successive Government underinvestment in social housing, together with spiralling rental costs have resulted in record numbers homeless in Ireland," he insisted.

However, Mr Allen did also acknowledge that there is ‘much good work' being done by the State, local authorities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and without this, ‘the current crisis would be so much worse'.

"However, we must never shy away from saying it is crystal clear that not enough is being down to keep people in their homes and prevent them from becoming homeless in the first place. The Government needs to move from managing homelessness towards ending it, and must take the decisions required to do this," he said,

He called for increased action in this area in Budget 2018, which is due to be announced on October 10, which also happens to be World Homelessness Day.

For more information on Focus Ireland, click here