Over 20,000 euro per homeless person is being spent by the government - and that's before donations to charities are even considered.
A new report for the Department of the Environment has suggested that homeless charities are not good value for money.
Questions are being raised about how charities spend the almost 96 million euro in funding they receive from the state.
Father Peter McVerry - who works with homeless people in Dublin - says that 20,000 can often rise to at least 30,000.
He added that there is a cheaper alternative:
