The European Homelessness Count (EHC) was a two year pilot project funded by the European Commission, in response to increasing policy demand for reliable and comparable data.1 Using the ETHOS Light harmonised definition of homelessness developed by FEANTSA (see report figure 1), it aimed to establish and test a common framework for measuring homelessness across cities in the European Union. Counts were conducted in 15 cities across 10 Member States in 2024 and expanded to 35 cities in 21 Member States in 2025.2 Cork City and the Dublin region participated in both years, led locally by Focus Ireland, in partnership with the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College, assisted by Professor Eoin O’Sullivan a member of the European Observatory on Homelessness.

The overall project was managed and co-ordinated by KU Leuven in Belgium, and introduced an innovative modular methodology, adaptable to diverse local governance and welfare contexts, existing data collection strategies and available administrative data sources across cities. Instead of imposing rigid standardisation, this approach allowed local ownership and the flexibility to implement counts using street surveys, headcounts, administrative data, surveys or a combination of these methods. Most cities used a version of the questionnaire developed by the project management team and city researchers, which draws on the European Service-Based Survey method. This method has been used since the 1990’s in Sweden and Norway, since 2007 in Denmark, since 2020 in some Belgian cities and more recently in some cities in the Netherlands. It is completed by clients or professionals on behalf of or with clients, who are homeless and using services both within and beyond the homeless sector (Benjaminsen et al., 2020). The EHC survey contained both mandatory and optional profile questions and was administered through an open-source, online survey platform, managed by KU Leuven. To allow a minimum core for European comparability, participating cities had to count people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in at least ETHOS Light categories 1–3 (roofless or sleeping rough, in emergency accommodation, and in temporary accommodation). Cities could opt to include additional data on PEH in ETHOS Light categories 4–6 if they wished. Steering Groups were formed in both Irish cities in 2024 to oversee the methodology, ETHOS Light groups for inclusion and data collection strategies. Stakeholders included the project researcher, representatives from the local authorities and other State bodies and representatives from NGOs working in the homelessness sector.