Both Housing charities and homeless agencies across Dublin are warning that the homelessness situation in the city has reached its boiling point.
One of a range of measures the government is considering in order to help alleviate the crisis, is to relocate these families in Dublin to rural areas.
Last month 70 new families were forced to sleep on the streets in the city.
The scheme would be carried out on a volunteer basis where vacant houses in the countryside would be advertised to homeless families in Dublin.
However Dublin Councillor Paul McAuliffe says attempting this in the past has led to the development of troubled areas:
"As we've seen in the past were we've tried to implement large scale solutions that don't suit people."
Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen says rural areas are also experiencing a homeless crisis:
"I find it crazy. This crisis, this emergency, is throughout the country. It's not just confined to Dublin, as pivotal as the situation and the boiling point is at here in the cit."
The relocation proposal is due to be considered by the government in the autumn.
