Children among homeless in B&B accommodation

For the first time ever, Louth County Council is having to find emergency accommodation for dozens of homeless families.

‘We have 28 homeless families in the county,’ says Director of Service Joe McGuinness. And while that figure includes a number of Traveller families who will shortly move into the refurbished halting site at Woodlands, it highlights how the housing crisis is reaching beyond the major cities.

There were 106 people living in emergency accommodation in the county at the end of November, including 35 children.

‘Homelessness has peaked this year,’ says Mr McGuinness. ‘We’ve very rarely had families presenting as homeless up until last year.’

He is clear that the cause of the problem is the lack of affordable housing in the private rental sector.

‘ The banks are repossessing second homes which had been rented out and a lot of people are coming in with their notic- es to quit,’ he says. ‘When the banks repossess these homes they are not necessarily putting them on the market and they are taking them out of the rental market so the availability of houses is being reduced.’

He points out that most of the boarded up houses which people see actually belong to financial institutions and not the local authority.

‘We have no long term vacant houses and when people see boarded houses in Coxes Demesne and Muirhevnamor, they are actually privately owned and it goes back to the banks sitting on those houses which they have repossessed.’

‘We have a very quick turnover on re-lets, with Dundalk having a better turnover on relets than most places, although Drogheda is slower.’

At any one time, the vacancy rate of council housing stock is one and a half per cent, so out of a housing stock of 3,800 houses, there are 60 houses being recycled, he explains.

‘ The council is also in the process of acquiring vacant privately owned houses through Compulsory Purchase Orders but it is a process which takes time,’ he says.

He believes that private rental sector has a huge role to play in solving the housing crisis but with twelve per cent of all second homes, excluding holiday homes, vacant, it is causing huge problems in towns like Dundalk and Drogheda. ‘ There are 740 vacant units in Dundalk and 700 in Drogheda,’ he says. ‘If these came on the market, it would be a quick solution to the crisis people are facing and we could clear the housing list.’

In the meantime, the local authority has to provide emergency accommodation for those who find themselves with no where to live. While 90 per cent of the cost is refunded by Central Government, it is still a burden on the council who can only respond to the housing crisis within the guidelines set down by the Department.