Additional reporting by Noel Baker.
A young woman in Dublin was seen taking shelter in a tumble-dryer as the State recorded 11,632 people living in homelessness, representing a new record.
Streetlink Homeless Support chief executive Padraig Drummond said he saw the woman in the "degrading" situation in Ballymun earlier this week.
Mr Drummond explained the woman was in her late 20s, and said she was sleeping in the tumble-dryer because she felt emergency accommodation was unsafe.
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) has since been in contact with the woman to offer support.
The latest figures from the Government show there were 8,190 adults and 3,442 children living in homelessness in December, an increase on the previous record of 11,542 recorded in November.
It is the sixth consecutive month that the number of people in emergency accommodation has reached a new peak, despite a temporary eviction ban being in place.
The figures from the Department of Housing also noted that just 221 people in the third quarter of 2022 were recorded as having moved out of homelessness and into rented accommodation, a 310 per cent decrease on Q3 figures from 2021.
'Shameful'
The Simon Communities of Ireland said the latest figures highlight the need for urgent action, particularly before the moratorium on evictions ends in eight weeks.
"It is profoundly upsetting to see homelessness continue to increase," the charity's executive director Wayne Stanley said.
"We usually see a trend in December where the number of people depending on emergency homeless accommodation falls as family and friends offer respite over the Christmas period.
"While this support was evident again last month, and we did see a fall in the number of families and children in homelessness, overall we saw an increase in December for the first time in six years."
Meanwhile, Focus Ireland described the figures as "shameful", with the charity's chief executive Pat Dennigan stating the increased figures "wipe out the massive progress we made during the pandemic in 2021".
"We need to use this set-back to give us the impetus to take the steps that can change things.
"Focus Ireland welcomed the Government’s winter eviction ban but warned that it only allowed a ‘breathing space’ for the Government to introduce measures that would have a more lasting impact.
"We are now half-way through the breathing space that the winter eviction ban creates, and we are calling on the Government to publish a progress report on how it has used this time and what it plans to put in place before the end of the current ban," Mr Dennigan urged.
