{"id":638095,"date":"2026-08-15T04:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638095\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T04:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:54:14","slug":"sweating-in-tents-and-searching-for-shelter-how-dublins-homeless-are-surviving-the-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638095\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweating in tents and searching for shelter: How Dublin’s homeless are surviving the heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWHEN YOU GET into the bed first, it\u2019s fucking very hot,\u201d said John, an older man\u00a0who has been homeless since his house burned down a little over a year ago.<\/p>\n

John said that by the time he walks across the city from the homeless services he visits to the doorway he sleeps in, he is \u201csweating like a pig\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky, I\u2019ve got three sleeping bags, and I lie on them, as the night gets colder, I put another sleeping bag over me. But it\u2019s fucking hot when you get into it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Last month was Ireland\u2019s driest July on record<\/a>,\u00a0and one of the sunniest months ever recorded here.\u00a0Successive warnings issued by Met \u00c9ireann\u00a0advised people to keep cool to avoid heatstroke<\/a>, but for homeless people, keeping cool isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

It was a humid 22 degrees as The Journal spoke to John on the steps outside the Lighthouse homeless caf\u00e9 \u2013 one of several organisations in Dublin city centre providing emergency supports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s rare solar eclipse was happening above our heads, and in the long line of people queuing for food and water on Pearse Street, a man passed around a pair of eclipse glasses so everyone could get a look at the sky.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside the caf\u00e9, it was just as busy as outside. Three fans operated on full blast as guests sat down to escape the heat and the kitchen delivered plates of chicken curry and rice.<\/p>\n

John said he came to Dublin from the countryside to have greater access to homeless services like the Lighthouse \u2013 something especially important during summer to shelter from the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His day usually starts at 6am when staff arrive to open the shop he took shelter in front of the previous night. From then on, John said it\u2019s just about finding ways to \u201cpass the fucking time\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the number of people he has seen sleeping rough and availing of homeless services is growing \u201call the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Homelessness levels first passed 17,000 at the start of 2026 and hit a record high of 17,548 during the month of April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the latest figures from the Department of Housing, 11,862 adults and a record 5,620 children were accessing emergency accommodation in June.<\/p>\n

John said he tried to access emergency accommodation, but there was rarely availability. Now he\u2019s decided it\u2019s a \u201cwaste of time\u201d even trying.<\/p>\n

As we spoke, someone John had met a few days ago called him and said he might have a bed for him for the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bed\u2019s a bed John, get in out of this,\u201d Robbie, the team leader at the Lighthouse, advised.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018In here they\u2019re a person\u2019<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5080\"
\n Robbie (left) preparing hot dinners alongside other workers at the Lighthouse.\n<\/p>\n

Robbie first became involved with the caf\u00e9 as a service user. Now, after 33 years of heroin addiction and sleeping rough, he is celebrating eight years drug free, and helping others in positions he once experienced.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like a family in here,\u00a0there\u2019s no differentiation, that\u2019s why I love it here. You\u2019re a human. You need help. We\u2019re gonna help you,\u201d Robbie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s helping us being able to just sit and listen to someone and not judge them. For a lot of homeless people, it would be just acknowledging them, because they\u2019re not acknowledged. People pass by them all day. In here they\u2019re a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the three and a half years he has worked at the Lighthouse, Robbie said the number of people using the service has quadrupled, with people from \u201call walks\u201d of life visiting.<\/p>\n

At the moment, Robbie said over 600 people visit the caf\u00e9 daily, and staff prepare around 700 hot dinners and takeaway meals.<\/p>\n

The service also provides haircuts, groceries, clothes and products like sunscreen \u2013 something Robbie said has been flying off the shelves this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had I don\u2019t know how many requests for cream and sprays. We got a load and they\u2019re gone. As quick as they come in, it\u2019s as quick as they\u2019re gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Robbie said the other thing guests have been in need of is water, adding that consumption has been so high staff refill the jug within minutes of putting it out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Safe place\u2019<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5077\"
\n Service users can also get a clean change of clothes and a haircut at the Lighthouse.\n<\/p>\n

Emma, who has been homeless with her two teenage children since being evicted from their home by a county council in November, visits the Lighthouse daily to avail of services, socialise and get out of the heat of the emergency accommodation family hub she now lives in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in the attic. It\u2019s very, very hot. The window is so small that it does get very hot in there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Emma said she has one small fan for herself and her kids, and has requested another, but she hasn\u2019t had any luck yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heat inside the hostels does be worse [than outside] sometimes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, she feels the most for people sleeping rough. \u201cI do be looking at people out there in their tents, and I\u2019d say they must be fucking sweating in them,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

After months visiting the Lighthouse, Emma said the people here have become her family, and she is now trying to become a volunteer to give back.<\/p>\n

As we spoke, several service users stopped to greet Emma, and volunteers offered us tea and coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody will look at you in a judgmental way here, and everybody\u2019s so honest, and that\u2019s what I love about it. You can just relax and nobody looks at you any way different. They\u2019ve helped me out a lot,\u201d Emma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to have a safe place to come to chill out and to relax, and this is mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"square-image
\n A poster on display inside the caf\u00e9.\n<\/p>\n

A service user who has been homeless for eight years and wished to remain anonymous said that without emergency supports \u201cyou\u2019d be bolloxed\u201d in the heat.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019s been too hot to use a tent recently, instead he sleeps rough \u201chere, there and everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis heat is very intense, especially when you\u2019re an alcoholic,\u201d he said, explaining that he becomes easily dehydrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou try and stay out of the sun as much as you can\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, he said the advantage of the summer is that people sleeping rough don\u2019t have to worry about the rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rain\u2019s the worst, no matter what situation you\u2019re in, as long as you\u2019re fucking dry, you\u2019ll get through it. But waking up soaked in the morning and it\u2019s to the bone, it\u2019s very tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another service user, Phil, also said that sleeping outside is \u201ca little bit\u201d easier during the summer as it\u2019s dry, but he would prefer to be in emergency accommodation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is trying to access emergency accommodation, because you need an address, you need a job, payslips. But then you\u2019re not going to get those if you haven\u2019t got somewhere to stay and you can\u2019t function,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the two and a half months he has been living homeless, Phil said he hasn\u2019t managed to spend one night in emergency accommodation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the day, he visits services like the Lighthouse \u201canytime it\u2019s open\u201d to access shelter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWHEN YOU GET into the bed first, it\u2019s fucking very hot,\u201d said John, an older man\u00a0who has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,52,18,112904,13,14,6,1953,14382,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,269773,7,8],"class_list":["post-638095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-emergency-accommodation","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-heatwave","tag-homelessness","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-the-lighthouse","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}