Developers snub new plan to aid homeless
No interest recorded in ambitious social housing database
IT was launched in a blaze of glory by former Housing Minister Simon Coveney – a database of potential sites for up to 50,000 social houses.
But four months on, the officials Mr Coveney left behind in that department have been forced to admit they don’t know how many – if any – developers want to build on land owned by local authorities.
The shock revelation comes as it emerged this week that children aged four and younger are the largest group of homeless people.
The scandal was exposed in the most recent figures which showed that, on census night in April 2016, 765 children from that age group were recorded as homeless.
Growing political pressure has seen current Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy summon all local authority CEOs to an ‘emergency summit’ on homelessness in the Custom House... which doesn’t take place until September.
The census figures have reignited a firestorm this week among homeless, anti-poverty and child welfare agencies because in the previous census in 2011, the largest group of homeless people were aged between 25 and 29.
And it has thrown new focus on an initiative launched by the Housing Department in April: an ambitious plan seeking expressions of interest from developers to build 50,000 homes on 5,000 acres of public land identified around Ireland.
‘We have no idea or what the level of interest is out there,’ said a Department spokesman when asked about how many developers had expressed interest.
Following on from the MoS’s questions to the Department, news emerged of a letter being sent to all Local Authority CEOs tomorrow to inform them that Mr Murphy is ‘concerned that some councils are not treating this [homelessness] with the urgency it requires’.
Senior figures claimed the Minister will also ‘advise local authorities of their obligations and responsibilities’ and ‘warn councils in Dublin that Local Authorities must see this as a shared responsibility and not be relying on the City Council to meet everyone’s needs’.
A source said Mr Murphy will inform more affluent authorities that homelessness cannot be shoehorned into the city centre and that ‘solutions are going to have to be found across county boundaries’.
Mr Murphy will bluntly state that ‘Local Authorities have to do more heavy lifting. Resourcing and Funding are not the issue. Local communities must not be allowed to stand in the way of accommodating homeless people’.
The Housing Minister will also tell councils to ‘advise where the system’ isn’t working.