The number of young adults experiencing homelessness in Ireland has been increasing in recent years. The latest Monthly Homelessness Report published by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) showed that 17% of people accessing emergency accommodation were aged between 18 and 24. Homelessness among this age group has grown by 57% in the last five years. The Programme for Government: Our Shared Future (2020) contains a commitment to developing a Youth Homelessness Strategy and this is articulated in Housing for All: A New Housing Plan for Ireland (Government of Ireland, 2021), the Government’s Housing Plan to 2030.

The aim of this Strategy is to help people who are aged 18-24 and who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. With the publication of this Strategy, the Government recognises young adults as a distinct cohort of individuals and that:
• There are multiple causes of youth homelessness;
• The experiences of young people in the emergency accommodation system are distinct from those of the rest of the homeless population; and
• Supporting young people at risk of becoming homeless can help to prevent a cycle of longer-term homelessness

This Strategy was developed with the understanding that young people should be valued in their own right, and that they are key drivers in achieving their own cognitive, emotional, social and economic development. It is clear that any Youth Homelessness Strategy requires an integrated, whole-ofGovernment approach, with a multitude of key stakeholders playing a vital role in addressing the fundamental issues arising in addressing youth homelessness. It was also important that a wide range of views would form part of the process of developing the Strategy. A number of important consultations took place to inform the Strategy, including a direct consultation with young people experiencing homelessness.

P.28 In interviews with 40 young Irish people experiencing homelessness (Mayock, Parker, & Murphy, 2014), the experiences of inter-generational homelessness (i.e. parental homelessness) and intra-generational homelessness (i.e. sibling homelessness) emerged as critically important in shaping trajectories into homelessness: 25% of participants reported periods of family homelessness, ranging from weeks to years, and 30% of participants reported intra-generational homelessness. The majority of these young people (93%) experimented with an illegal drug at some point in their lives, and many first used a drug during their early-to-mid-teenage years. Drug abuse often served as a means to self-medicate for mental health issues. Additionally, the follow-up wave of research (Mayock & Parker, 2017) found that the representation of young parents had increased from 15% in Wave 1 to 41% in Wave 2, illuminating the cyclical nature of inter-generational homelessness. Many reported complex and overlapping support needs, often related to longstanding mental health problems and/or problematic substance use. These young people’s homeless and housing pathways were characterised by (Mayock & Parker, 2017, p. 6) as:
• “Ongoing patterns of movement between emergency accommodation and insecure housing;
• Repeat stays in institutional settings, including acute or psychiatric hospitals, residential alcohol/drug treatment facilities and prison; and
• Heightened levels of substance use and/or deteriorating mental health that frequently coincided with periods spent sleeping rough and/or living (back) in emergency provision”.
Unmet mental health needs were reported by many participants in the direct consultation, including those of the general homeless population at large. The interrelationship between mental health needs and addiction issues was also noted by the participants.