Housing action group says there are forty crisis cases
THE Wexford Homeless Housing Action Group (WHHAG) has said it’s currently dealing with 40 cases in the town involving families and individuals who are either in rental distress or sleeping on the street.
The organisation also claims the County Council needs to do more to exercise its powers to protect people who are in danger of becoming homeless throughout the county.
Around two weeks ago the group began a campaign to highlight the number of vacant houses around the town, placing stickers on the doors of the houses to emphasise they could be used as homes.
The stickers, displaying the words ‘shame on you, this could be a home’ have been placed on around 20 properties to date and according to the group’s spokesperson, Aishling Wallace, the campaign is only beginning.
‘We just want to identify vacant properties that are out there and start a register of them because at present one doesn’t exist,’ she said.
In identifying houses the group members go out and talk to people living close to vacant properties to find out as much information as they can regarding how long the houses have been vacant.
‘We go out and talk to people next door or close to them and we try to get a picture of who owns the properties and what state the buildings are in,’ said Ms Wallace.
‘Some of these buildings are actually in relatively good repair and wouldn’t require a lot of work to get them fit-for-purpose,’ she added.
She said that in some areas there are houses that were built at the height of the boom but were never occupied and are ‘ready to move into’.
‘In John Street there are two buildings opposite each other that have never been occupied,’ she said.
Ms Wallace said her group feels the local authority is not doing enough to exercise all of its power to get vacant houses into the social housing system.
‘The Council has the power to put a compulsory purchase order on some of these houses but they are not doing that,’ said Ms Wallace.
‘There was supposed to be more stringent legislation brought in regarding a property that is vacant but designated for residential use, and pressure could be put on the person that owns it, but that is not being done,’ she added.
Ms Wallace also commented there are a number of areas where a lot of vacant houses are built and she said her group is questioning why houses were built in areas where people don’t want to live.
‘There are a lot of people in Wexford living in overcrowded conditions,’ she said.
She said the current sticker campaign came about because the group, which is aligned to the national Irish Housing Network group, feels the time for action has arrived.
‘We just feel it’s time to become a little bit more pro-active.’
Ms Wallace also said the WHHAG helps people who are affected by ‘food poverty’ and other issues.
‘It’s the start of a campaign to stop landlords being allowed to hoard properties just so they can speculate,’ said Ms Wallace.
‘It’s a campaign to help people get a home and we go around once-a-week to highlight the [vacant] properties we find.’
She said the group hopes to map where vacant properties are as part of their campaign.
She also acknowledged that some of the unoccupied properties around the town would require a lot of work to get them up to habitable standard.
‘I understand a lot of houses would need a lot of work, especially in the middle of town, but if you are a property owner and you want to let it fall down then what is the agenda behind that?,’ she asked.
‘This is an issue we need to highlight.’
She commented that people are being evicted from private rented accommodation and end up within the homeless services system but added that system is not working.
‘We just want to work at finding workable solutions.’
The group began its campaign in two estates in the town and the area between the old Garda Station and John Street; they placed stickers on two houses adjacent to the old station that used to be used for Garda residential purposes.
Ms Wallace said the group is calling on the local authority to exercise its compulsory purchase order powers to turn vacant houses into homes.
‘We want them to look at other solutions including strengthening legislation around HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) to increase security of tenure for tenants.
‘These are real people and something needs to be done,’ said Ms Wallace.
There are ten people on the WHHAG committee and their campaign is being self-funded.