According to the housing and homeless charity Focus Ireland, there are currently in the region of 100,000 households on local authority social housing waiting lists across the State, 5000 people who are homeless at any one time and more than 93,000 households receiving rent supplement due to difficulty in paying their rent within the private rented sector.
At the launch of their annual report published last month, they said that the Dublin government would fail to meet its public commitment to end homelessness by the end of this year. They also warned that the absence of more effective action by government would only result in a deepening of the housing and homeless crisis as the need for housing is now greater than ever.
Describing those statistics as "shocking", Focus Ireland Life President and Founder Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy said that “these dramatic increases in housing need have taken place at a time when we have been building more houses than ever before. How can it be that Ireland managed to build in the region of 250,000 homes that were not needed during the boom years yet we have still failed to provide enough homes for those who need them most?”
Questioning the governments priorities and lack of investment in housing, Sr Stanislaus asked "how can the government secure €50 billion to bail out the banks but at the same time cut welfare payments and continue to underinvest in housing and essential services?"
In county Donegal there are around 500 families on the housing waiting list, while here in County Sligo alone there are in the region of 1400 families waiting to be housed by both Sligo Borough and County Councils.
Last year, the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government introduced what is called the Social Housing Leasing Scheme. According to the Departments website, the supposed aim of the scheme is to expand the options "available to local authorities for the delivery of social housing. Properties will be leased from the private sector and used to accommodate households from local authority waiting lists. Leased properties will be allocated to tenants, in accordance with the local authorities allocations schemes".
Under the scheme Councils are entering into lease arrangements with property owners for periods of between 10 – 20 years. Among the benefits the developer will secure is that their properties will be tenanted, managed and maintained throughout all of this period by the local authority.
Even better news for the property owners is that the rent they receive from the council will be guaranteed for the entire time of the lease, and that rent will be an ‘inclusive’ one that includes all rates, charges and taxes that may apply to the leased property. The houses will also be provided unfurnished and on a ‘repair and insure’ basis where the Local Authority will be responsible for the insurance, maintenance and general repair of the properties.
However éirígí Sligeach activist Gerry Casey has dismissed the scheme as "no solution" to the housing crisis and "nothing more than another bail-out for developers".
Accusing Fianna Fáil and the Greens of ignoring the plight of the homeless and those on housing waiting lists, Casey said:
"This is yet another shameful bail-out of developers cynically dressed up as a measure to tackle the housing crisis. The only people to benefit will be those developers who will basically have their mortgages paid and have their investment maintained at tax payers expense for between 10 to 20 years before being handed back to them in pristine condition."
He added: "For those in need of housing, being allocated one of these properties by the Council to rent will not offer any long term solution. All it provides is uncertainty as families will have no security of tenure. Once the lease between the council and the developer runs out, the families and individuals in question will be put out of their home and once again be placed back on the waiting list and in need of housing. This is an unacceptable situation for families to be placed in."
"What families need, and what this administration has failed miserably to deliver, has been not just a house but more importantly a home. Security of tenure is central to that."
"This also makes the threats to punish those who refuse to take up the offer of one of these properties by having them lose their place on the waiting list all the more despicable. Housing is a right, not a privilege."
"This also makes the threats to punish those who refuse to take up the offer of one of these properties by having them lose their place on the waiting list all the more despicable. Housing is a right, not a privilege."
éirígí Tír Chonaill spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig also attacked the scheme describing it as "scandalous" and "unjustifiable".
He said: “Having local councils basically paying the mortgages of property developers and maintaining their properties at tax payers expense for between ten or twenty years is a scandalous and unjustifiable move. The developers who built these houses, driven by greed and a belief that they could make themselves rich on the backs of working families by selling the properties at grossly over-inflated prices, have now been left unable to sell them as the economy collapsed.”
“Along with the policies of this government and the bankers, this unbridled greed by developers also contributed greatly to the current economic crisis. Now their Fianna Fáil cronies are rescuing them by means of this long term scheme which sees tax payers pay to protect these developers investments while the developer doesnt have to spend a cent or lift a finger.”
“Fianna Fáil are happy to see families lose their homes and hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs. They are happy to impose savage cuts in income for low paid workers and welfare recipients. They are happy to see our young people emigrate once again and they are more than happy to shut hospitals and reduce and remove essential health services.”
He concluded: “However, when it comes to allowing developers take a loss or go out of business as a result of their greed, thats a step too far. Fianna Fáil insist that they must be protected, just like the banks. That's what this scheme is about. That's Fianna Fáil priorities for you.”
