TRIBUTES HAVE been paid to Winnie Joyce, who passed away last week in Dublin city centre.
Ms Joyce, was known to homeless services and was using these services when she passed away last week.
Her body was found in a premises in James Street on Wednesday last, with Gardaí telling local outlet Dublin Live that foul play is not suspected in her death.
The woman, believed to be aged in her thirties and from Coolock in north Dublin, is one of more than 45 people believed to have to died in Dublin this year alone.
Cllr Anthony Flynn, head of Inner City Helping Homeless charity, paid tribute to Ms Joyce with a heart-wrenching post on Twitter.
"A woman died this week," he said. "Her name was Winnie."
"On average 10 people a month [passed] away so far this year.
"Over 45 people so far through the year."
He continued: "These are people's sons, daughters, brothers or sisters.
"We haven't heard a word from [Darragh O'Brien, Minister for Housing] or [Micheál Martin]".
Ireland's, and in particular Dublin's homelessness crisis has been well-publicised and highly criticised in recent years, with the Government under pressure to make housing affordable and tackle the cause of homelessness at its root causes, as well as to offer more support to those who find themselves in the position where they are homeless.
Earlier this month, a photograph showing huge lines at a soup kitchen in Dublin was described as "heartbreaking" as the charity involved confirmed it was one of their busiest nights ever.
The Muslim Sisters of Eire, a woman’s charity group focused on fundraising and helping those in economic hardship, described how they witnessed “one of the worst nights” in recent memory while operating outside the General Post Office (GPO) in early May.
“We just couldn’t control the crowds,” the Muslim Sisters of Eire wrote on Facebook.
“It was like a stampede at the table. The volunteers were getting frightened.
“We had 580 meals and we ran out of meals. We’ve never seen anything like that in our lives."
And in April, the emergence of a four-year-old girl eating dinner from a plastic tray by a roadside sparked fury among the public and in the Dáil.
The heart-breaking photograph was taken outside a Dublin soup kitchen and was described as "shameful" and "heart-wrenching" by Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, who raised the issue in the Dáil, calling for rents to be cut and any increases banned.
