Focus Ireland has called for temporary supports to prevent homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic to be extended beyond 27 June, to prevent a surge in people becoming homelessness.

The number of families presenting as homeless in Dublin fell to just 14 in April, the lowest since the family homelessness crisis began in 2013.

The charity attributes this to the temporary rent freeze and ban on evictions, which were introduced for three months on 27 March.

"They have had a huge impact. We can see from the numbers that there are far fewer families becoming homeless at present, so we would urge that those supports to continue into the future," Niamh Lambe, the manager of the charity's Family Homeless Action Team said.

Working with Dublin City Council and Dublin Region Homeless Executive, Focus Ireland has also found homes for more than 100 families in Dublin in the last two months - 52 in March and 54 in April.

These families include 233 children.

This is despite a fall off in the number of properties being put up for rent since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

Economist Dr Ronan Lyons said two parts of the country had bucked this trend, with central Dublin and central Galway seeing an increase in listings.

He said he believes this may be attributed to the collapse in tourism and the resulting fall in demand for short-term rentals.

"The increase was concentrated in the period just after things were closed down, the second half of March and in early April in particular, and the geographic concentration of that suggests its much more likely to be short term lets becoming long term lets, rather than some other factor," he said.

Ms Lambe said that the families that have been recently re-housed have moved into what she described as "long-term sustainable housing"

She said: "The housing the families have moved into includes local authority housing, HAP properties [private rental accommodation where a tenant is availing of the Housing Assistance Payment], approved housing bodies as well with long term leases.

"This is what we promote, the 'housing first' approach to have our families in long term sustainable accommodation."

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Kemi Adedigba and her family are about to move into their new home next week.

She and her four children became homeless on New Year's Eve 2019.

A full-time mental health nurse, Ms Adedigba had been renting the house where they had lived for around four years before that.

However, when the landlord gave her notice to leave at the end of last year, she struggled to find somewhere else for her family to live and they have been living in emergency homeless accommodation since then.

Her children range in age from 11 to 21. Her eldest is in college, and she had two children studying for the junior and leaving certificates, until they were cancelled due to Covid-19.

Ms Adedigba said living in a hotel with her children during the height of the Covid-19 restrictions was extremely difficult.

"Before the lockdown the children could go to school, so that was a bit of time away from the room, you know get a bit of fresh air, be with your friends and then you come back, do homework and then go to sleep, and start all over again.

"But then with the lockdown everyone is in the room and its not a big room, there's not much space.

"Sometimes I work nights and I come home in the morning and I can't get a good sleep because they are probably trying to whisper, being considerate that I have to sleep, but the whispering is even worse," Ms Adedigba said.

"There are times I want to cry, I have to go to the bathroom and shut the door and have a little cry and come out and still be brave for the kids.

"Plus I have a challenging job that I have to go to, I have to support people at work as well so I have to leave my problems at home, get to work, brave up and when I finish, I go back to the dark place."

Ms Adedigba was supported by Focus Ireland in finding a new home, and after many unsuccessful viewings she could not quite believe it when she was offered a house to rent.

"So I just picked up the call, and [the person said] I've got good news for you, and I didn't even wait for the rest, I just started screaming...so I got a place, I'm delighted," Ms Adedigba said.

"I'm looking forward to just cooking in a kitchen, having a roast, I'm looking forward to sitting out in the back-garden in this beautiful weather, because we can't do that [where we are]... I'm looking forward to so much... oh and my own bedroom," she said.

Ms Adedigba said she is very grateful that she and her family could avail of emergency homeless accommodation when they needed it.

"I was glad to have a roof over my head at that time, I never knew I would find myself in that sort of situation and when I did it just shows you, it can happen to anyone, because I am working full time and you think 'why is she homeless', but it can happen to anyone."