A father living in emergency accommodation for more than two years has described the difficulty of living in a single room with his wife and three children all aged under ten.
The family lives in a single room provided by Simon Mid-West in what used to be a B&B.
They are represented in the more than 16,600 people who accessed emergency accommodation in September, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.
"We have to basically eat, sleep and have showers and use the bathroom all in the same room," Jonathan told RTÉ's This Week.
"The room is so small, we can't even get (the children) to do their homework properly.
"They're either laying on beds or are on the floor.
"Don't get me wrong, we do have tables situated in the room, but it's not the same.
"They can't really focus as well while doing their homework inside here because there's a lot of other kids in here as well, and kids are going to be kids, and there's a lot of noise inside there.
"So, there's a lack of concentration."
Jonathan's three children went to their grandmother's house for Halloween.
"We don't have trick or treaters coming here ... we kind of have to leave the family hub," he said.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player 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
While other children were able to organise sleepovers with friends over the midterm break, Jonathan said his children are embarrassed of where they live and do not tell their classmates.
"They know where they are," Jonathan said.
"They know that it's not a home.
"They know it's a homeless accommodation and they get very embarrassed as well, so they can't really say that inside school."
The number of children in homelessness grew to a historic 5,238 in September, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.
A total of 16,614 people were living in emergency accommodation in September, marking another record high in monthly homelessness figures.
For Jonathan and his family, this was the third Halloween they have spent in emergency accommodation.
"All we really need is space," Jonathan said.
"Getting a house would be the main goal.
"Our youngest child has never had a home of her own.
"All she knows is this bedroom that we're living in."
