Dublin City Council has agreed two motions in relation to housing while also discussing the possibility of vacant buildings in the area being used to educate children with special needs.
The first motion called on Minister for Housing James Browne to release funding for the tenant-in-situ scheme.
The second motion called for additional resources to tackle vacancies and dereliction in the Dublin City Council area and to pursue all unpaid derelict and vacant site levies owed to the council.
The first motion, which was proposed by Sinn Féin, called on Mr Browne to agree to targets and release funding for the tenant-in-situ scheme, which it said has played a positive role in preventing hundreds of families from entering homelessness.
The party's group leader on the council, Councillor Daithí Doolan, said councillors have been waiting over two months for the Government to release funding for this year's scheme despite the deepening housing crisis in Dublin.
"This year alone dozens of families are facing no fault evictions, whereby the tenant-in-situ scheme would have allowed them to remain safe in their home," he said.
He described this as "hugely stressful", adding that is also "totally avoidable if the minister would only act".
"The scheme allows Dublin City Council buy properties for tenants who face a no-fault eviction notice, allowing the family to remain in the property as tenants of Dublin City Council," he said.
Mr Doolan said: "Latest figures show that there is now a total of 10,912 people homeless in Dublin, an increase of 1,015 since last year.
"This includes 3,415 children."
The wait for the Government to release funding, he said, "is a dangerous cocktail of heartlessness and incompetence".
He said Lord Mayor of Dublin Emma Blain will now contact the minister asking that the funding be immediately released to Dublin City Council.
The second motion, by the Green Party, called for the council to allocate additional resources to tackle vacancy and dereliction, and to urgently pursue all unpaid derelict and vacant site levies owed to the council.
Councillor Feljin Jose, who proposed the motion, said there are currently more than 14,000 vacant properties in Dublin with over a fifth vacant for more than four years.
He said figures released to him by Dublin City Council show that €22 million is currently owed to the council in relation to 34 sites on its vacant sites register and €9.5m in relation to 130 sites on the derelict sites register.
Mr Jose said: "The derelict sites levy is the main tool that we have to tackle the scourge of derelict buildings in our city and the vacant sites levy for vacant brownfield sites.
"They're both 7% of the value per year and yet levies are paid to this council."
The councillor said he was aware of "an increase in enforcement in recent years", adding that hundreds of cases are currently being investigated.
However, he noted "there are hundreds more properties that belong on the derelict sites register and whose owners need to be pressured to sell or make use of their buildings".
Separately, Labour Councillor Ali Field raised a topical issue in which she asked Dublin City Council to use vacant buildings for education purposes for children with special needs.
Ms Field, whose son is autistic, said she had "walked the walk" of the parents who had slept outside the Department of Education in protest against a lack of school places for their children.
She appealed to the council to "please do something with vacant buildings" to address the issue.
Her contribution was greeted with applause and praised by councillors across the political spectrum.
Most councillors pledged support for her call.
However, Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker, who said she has children with additional needs, stated she did not think buildings are the issue.
Ms Stocker added the issue is due to a "successive and deliberate failure of Government on the issue".
"Vacant buildings will not solve this," she said.
