A record 12,847 people are registered as homeless in Ireland.
The latest Department of Housing figures shows a 21% increase in a year.
The total includes 3,829 children who are growing up in B&Bs and hotels.
It's the highest number of children registered as homeless for more than three years.
Dublin has the most acute homeless problem in the country - there are 9,484 people living in emergency accommodation including 2,908 children.
There's a total of 1,839 families registered as homeless with 57 percent of those single-parent families.
The Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien says getting people into permanent housing is a goal of the Government while admitting he doesn't know when the figures will start to come down.
The figures from the Department of Housing don't include asylum seekers, refugees, rough sleepers, women in refuge centres or the so-called hidden homeless.
