The CEO of the charity Dublin Simon has described the current cold snap as "an emergency" that requires "an immediate response".
Earlier this week, Dublin Simon issued an appeal to the public to look out for people sleeping rough this week amid the current Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning across the country.
The appeal put it starkly: "Sleeping rough during periods of very low temperatures can pose a serious risk to life."
Catherine Kenny said Dublin Simon had seen an increase in contacts from those sleeping rough looking for emergency accommodation during the cold weather.
"The outreach teams have been flat out," Ms Kenny told RTÉ News.
However she stressed that each case is different and even as temperatures drop some people will still feel that they "can't or don't want to avail of accommodation".
"For those we can't accommodate it's about keeping them as safe as we can, providing extra winter gear, providing extra socks and waterproofs," she said.
Dublin Simon's soup run and breakfast run volunteers are also delivering hot soup, tea, and nutritious food to people sleeping outdoors in the city centre, she said.
"It's an incredibly anxious time for us, and we need to work with the (rough sleeping) person so it is an incredibly anxious time for them. They don't want to be in the situation they're in," she said.
Ms Kenny also noted that this was only "the beginning of the cold season unfortunately".
According to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, a total new capacity of 192 permanent beds were provided as part of the latest cold weather strategy, and a further 104 additional beds can be activated when a weather warning is in place.
A spokesperson said: "DRHE along with our outreach providers will monitor the weather and likely changes to weather warnings over the coming days and activate extreme weather emergency accommodation as required."
Read more: 'Heavy' snow in many areas as Status Orange and Yellow warnings in place
Those working at the Tiglin Lighthouse Cafe have been extremely busy this week.
The charity's co-founder and chair, Aubrey McCarthy, said people had been "coming in with their sleeping bag draped around their shoulder to see if we can dry them off".
"Of course when its really extreme we give them a new tent and a new sleeping bag, but we don't want to," Mr McCarthy said.
"A tent and a sleeping bag is when people go camping, that is our childhood memory. It's not to live in, it's a very temporary fix and in extreme cold weather it is just not the norm."
Tiglin is a homelessness and addiction charity, however Mr McCarthy explained how its services have now been expanded to provide an outreach service for a group of people who fall outside the usual rough sleeper provisions: rough sleeping International Protection Applicants (IPAs).
"What we have found is the IPAs, the International Protection Applicants, they are outside of the cold weather initiative so we have a dedicated team specifically for them," Mr McCarthy explained.
DHRE has said that the responsibility for providing accommodation rests with the International Protection Accommodation Service, under the Department of Children.
A spokesperson for the Department said that "any international protection applicants who are unaccommodated and are rough-sleeping are the main focus of the IPAS cold weather response plan."
And that "IPAS is currently able to make offers of accommodation to international protection applicants found actively rough sleeping in the Dublin area".
"It usually comes across anywhere between 10 and 30 people (IP applicants who are rough sleeping) each night," Mr McCarthy said.
There are currently 2,897 male international protection applicants who arrived since last December who have yet to receive an offer of State accommodation.
During the summer, encampments of rough sleeping international protection applicants were cleared from around the International Protection Office on Mount Street and along the Grand Canal in Dublin City Centre.
At that time some of those offered accommodation had spent months sleeping rough.
Mr McCarthy praised the work done by his team and the Department of Integration to reduce the time it now takes for offers of accommodation to be made to rough sleeping asylum seekers.
Nevertheless, he says it remains a worrying time.
"I am just praying that no lives will be lost during this cold weather snap," he said.
