The imminent birth of a baby is usually a time of joy and excitement but for one Irish woman, her pregnancy has been full of uncertainty and distress.

The organisation Hope in the Darkness has been feeding homeless people on the streets of Dublin for nearly two years. They recently shared a photo of an unnamed woman who is eight months pregnant and living on the streets. The unnamed woman shared her story with Hope in the Darkness who posted the photo on their Facebook page.

"8 months pregnant and left to sleep in a doorway. Some nights she's "lucky" to get a mat on the floor in Merchants Quay. Other nights she's offered a bed in a hostel where she's separated from her partner and put in a dormitory with people she has told me are openly injecting drugs in front of her so a doorway with her partner is a safer option for her."

This lady has no home to prepare for her new baby. She has very few belongings and nowhere to store them.  A spokesperson for Hope in the Darkness said that the public has donated baby clothes since she first posted about this woman's plight.

"This lady can't even get her hospital bag together for herself and her soon to be born daughter. She has nowhere to store the stuff that we all get so excited about gathering up in the run up to the birth of our children."

The homeless organisation said there has been a huge surge in people looking for food since they first began Hope in the Darkness two years ago, many of them women and small children.

"At 1st we served approx 100 a night. Now it's between 300 to 400 a night."

There has been a marked increase in the amount of women and children making up homeless numbers, of the 8,270 homeless people in Ireland one third are children. Homeless women are over-represented, making up 42 percent of homeless people, compared to the European average of 20-33 percent.  More than a thousand families are currently living in emergency accommodation despite a recorded 183,000 vacant dwellings (Census 2016). Louise Bayliss of S.P.A.R.K Ireland says that lone mothers are one group over-represented in homeless figures.

"Lone parent families represent less than 20 percent of families, yet 65 percent of families in homeless accommodation are lone parents. It's clear that lone parents are being disproportionately hit by the homeless crisis and I would be really concerned that the proposed 'homeless hubs' will become the modern equivalent of Mother and Baby homes as lone parent families are priced out of the housing market".

Successive Housing Ministers have done little to improve the homelessness situation, and the number of homeless people keeps rising each year. Fine Gael's promised "Republic of Opportunity" must seem like a cruel joke to people like this woman, heavily pregnant and forced to sleep rough on the streets of Dublin, for want of a home. Today marks World Homeless Day and Inner City Helping Homeless has organised their annual 'Light the Liffey' event in conjunction with the #MyNameIs campaign. I.C.H.H,  72 Amiens Street Dublin 1 at 8 pm.