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Around a quarter of those forced to queue at a Dublin soup kitchen are working – but crippled by “crazy” rent and food poverty.

A record 550 people were counted lining up at the College Green aid station in the city on Sunday.

Tony Walsh, the founder of Feed Our Homeless, pointed out around 130 of them have jobs but are faced with bare cupboards after paying up to 70% of their income to rent a room.

Some professionals are now either homeless or among those one step away from the nightmare situation.

Mr Walsh told Dublin Live: “The queues were off the Richter scale.

“Food poverty is seriously on the increase not only in Dublin but all over the country and it’s down to the rental market.

“In recent months we would have had 350 or 400 people on a Sunday night.

“There are people here who are generally working and they do have a home but 70% of their income

is going on the rent and it leaves them with nothing.

“They have no food to feed their families for the rest of the month.

“It’s all down to the rental market. Eoghan Murphy put €4billion into the rental market when that could have gone into building social housing and 20,000 houses twice over.

“If there was enough social housing built the rents would come down because it’s supply and demand and landlords are charging extortionate rents.

“They’re giving away public land to private developers to build student accommodation when that public land could build public housing to reduce the numbers on the social housing waiting lists.”

(Image: Feed Our Homeless)

Mr Walsh also slammed the Housing Minister’s co-living idea, insisting it would leave hard-pressed tenants with “no rights”.

The latest shameful homeless figures revealed that in June there were 10,172 people, made up of 6,497 adults and 3,675 children, in emergency accommodation in Ireland.

Lee O’Neill, a software developer who queued for food at the weekend, said: “I’m at the soup kitchen because I need to save up money for a deposit.

“I recently became homeless and I couldn’t afford to pay rent in the place I was living as the landlord upped the rent and it’s outside my budget.

“I’m currently saving to try and get a new place.

“He wouldn’t give me back my deposit either, which is illegal, so for nearly a month now I’ve been staying in emergency accommodation to try and save up for another deposit.

“It’s first come first served so you’re not guaranteed a bed every time. You have to ring up by 4.30pm and you might be lucky to get one.

“If you’re not, you have to go up and get a sleeping bag and sleep rough.”

Mr O’Neill, from Dun Laoghaire in Co Dublin, studied computer science at DCU. He previously worked in a technical support role with BT.

The 30-year-old said: “I’m still working but I get paid monthly and that’s why I have to wait to get my pay cheque to save up to get my deposit.

“I think there should be a [tighter] rent cap on the prices in Dublin. If you go to surrounding counties the prices are only a quarter, in places like Dundalk or anywhere.

“I was living in Dun Laoghaire and paying €600 a month for a single room in a house.”

He added that now, you would be lucky to get a place for €600 “with another stranger in the same room”.

And Mr O’Neill, who returned home 12 months ago after living in Cardiff, said accommodation in the Welsh capital was a “quarter of the price” at around €440 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.

Many tenants have no idea how much was paid by previous occupants and data from daft.ie and myhome.ie suggests many tariffs are being increased by much more than the 4% rental cap.

Mr O’Neill, who is experiencing his first serious period of homelessness, said: “I’m absolutely let down by the Government. I’m upset they won’t help their own people. They pump the money into the rental market but at the same time the landlords are reaping the rewards.

“They’re just upping the rent, there’s no rent cap. It’s craziness compared to the other counties.”

A second man told Dublin Live he was at the soup kitchen because he could afford to pay for neither food or rent.

The 47-year-old from Belfast, who didn’t want to give his name, said: “I don’t even get [social welfare] now. I came to Dublin about 10 years ago and I was on the dole and I was renting an apartment with a friend.

“I had a wee painting job but I lost my job and I tried to go on the social but they wouldn’t let me. I don’t know why.

“I’m sleeping on the streets now. I’m staying near St Stephen’s Green park, Harcourt Street.

“I’m outside a place there in cardboard the last three or four years now. My health’s gone, my mental health is deteriorating and my back is very bad from sleeping on the hard ground.

“I have nothing mate, I have no money or nothing.”

Having battled drug addiction problems in the past, he said he is now back in control.

But he added: “I’m down on the list. I get [emergency accommodation] now and again but when you’re in Merchant's Quay, you’re lying on the ground and you’re not getting to sleep until 3am in the morning.

“Then they’re throwing you out at a quarter past six or half past six. You’re not even getting four hours’ kip.

“And of course, I’d fear for my safety. You have to watch other people.

“I’ve been in hostels and I’ve had money stolen out of my pockets.”