There has been a 40% increase in the number of people over the age of 55 seeking help from Merchants Quay Ireland this year.
The homeless and addiction charity has expressed concern about the number of older men who are presenting as homeless for the first time.
Many of them were at MQI headquarters in Dublin this morning for a Christmas party where over 200 people were fed dinner.
Many older people seeking help from the charity are homeless for the first time which means they are often overwhelmed and in poor health by the time they arrive at the door of MQI.
Kevin, who sought help from Merchants Quay, went from having a good life and a job to finding himself on the streets in his 50s following an illness.
He says: "I was in hospital for almost two months and when I came out, even my flat was gone because they thought I'd done a runner.
"I went from 12 stone down to about seven stone and it was many years of recuperation after that."
Kevin lived on the streets for a number of years.
"It's very difficult. I'm not ancient, but I'm old enough that it's hard, you know. It's hard for young people, but when you get to a certain age, then it's not a good place to be," he says.
Amy Carroll who is Merchant Quay Ireland's homeless and harm reduction service coordinator has been working with the charity for almost ten years.
She says Kevin's story isn't unique.
"They become very vulnerable and when they're accessing services it's their first time to come in and they've never experienced anything like this before," Ms Carroll.
Women are also presenting to MQI’s services, however, Amy says there's a larger number of men seeking help.
She says: "We're seeing so many people come in who are homeless for the first time, who have really bad mental health, who have really bad physical health.
"So, we try and prioritise them with wrap around supports with a holistic approach."
Merchants Quay Ireland which provides open access crisis intervention and health promotion services, day-support programmes, residential treatment, detox, and prison counselling, recently acquired a new CEO who worked in the prison service for 22 years.
Former Prison Governor Eddie Mullins began his new role a number of months ago, and admits, he thought he saw it all in his previous job.
He has been "shocked" by the levels of deprivation and isolation that people are experiencing.
Mr Mullins says: "If you look at many of our clients here, a lot of them are over 55 years of age.
"At that point in your life, you'd expect to be taking things a bit easier or maybe putting your feet up for Christmas and so many people don't know where they're going to go.
"So, they will leave here today and then maybe walk around the streets aimlessly and then back into a hostel tonight and it's just unbelievably sad."
The most recent figures from the Department of Housing show that a total of 13,179 people were homeless in October.
Figures released by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive show that 9,713 individuals are accessing emergency accommodation in the capital.
Official figures do not include rough sleepers, women in refuges, people who are couch surfing, or those staying with friends or relatives.
It means that the number of people homeless at Christmas will be the highest on record.
Kevin says people need to be mindful that homeless people are more like wider society than the public think.
He says: "It's kind of like on the periphery of your vision when you see people begging or they're standing there in rags or whatever. You wouldn't even want to look in case you might get attacked or something.
"This is the idea that people have. "I actually started talking to people like that for the first time, when I was part of this, and I couldn't believe it. I mean, they were so nice, and they were helpful and friendly and everything.
"They're people and maybe if everyone took a minute to just always say hi, how's it going, it might be a better place."
