New delay in supply of modular homes
Homeless left waiting as council cancels its tender
MODULAR homes for homeless families have been further delayed by at least four months after Dublin City Council cancelled the tender for them.
As many as 131 of the prefab houses in Finglas, Ballyfermot, Belcamp and Drimnagh in Dublin due to be erected by June are now not expected to be completed until autumn.
Dublin City Council cancelled the tenders worth €20million, issued in December, as it said: Insufficient number of tender applicants confirmed they would be able to meet the deadline in order to conduct a competition’.
It said it is ‘working towards the completion of all units by autumn 2016’.
It comes after the first 22 modular homes that were due to be ready for families in emergency accommodation by Christmas were delayed and are not due for completion until the end of this month.
Homeless campaigner Father Peter McVerry said: ‘I’m very surprised, to be honest. I’m very disappointed for those families who could have swapped a hotel bedroom for a lovely modular home.
‘Six, nine months ago when these homes were on display, there was great interest from the contractors. One of them told me he could produce ten of these modular homes every day and he could have them on site two days later.
‘Providing them now is going to be as slow as building houses.’ Focus Ireland said the news of the tender cancellation is ‘ever more alarming, coming as it does just days after new figures from the charity show a shocking record total of 125 families who became homeless in January in Dublin’.
Focus Ireland advocacy and communications manager Roughan MacNamara said: ‘This crisis is not Dublin City Council’s fault as they are struggling to cope with more and more families becoming homeless every month.
‘It is vital that the next government, who ever makes it up, learns lessons from how this crisis deepened to an emergency situation.
‘Focus Ireland is the lead agency supporting families who are homeless and we help one family a day to secure a home, with the support of the council and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.
‘However, the very same day three or four families are losing their homes and becoming home- less, so the crisis is getting worse.’
Dublin City Council initiated a fresh competition yesterday for tenders for the 131 modular homes. A council spokesman said: ‘The City Council invited expressions of interest for the provision of 131 rapid delivery housing units in four project lots, within the Council’s administrative area.
‘It was a condition of the competition that the successful applicants “must be in a position to complete the development(s) within a maximum period of 16 calendar weeks from the contract commencement to substantial completion on site and in any event by June 30, 2016”.
‘The council received an insufficient number of applicants who confirmed they would be able to meet the deadline in order to conduct a competition. The council considers that the deadline is no longer achievable.’
He said the council had been advised that continuing with the competition would necessitate a material amendment of the terms of the competition as advertised. Therefore, it had decided to launch a fresh competition’.
No completion until autumn