Housing crisis has reached new dire levels ...Government needs to take new radical measures now
THE housing crisis is reaching a new and even more dire level.
Homeless figures have returned to pre-pandemic levels with nearly 10,000 households in homeless services, including 2,600 children.
Rents have reached staggering new highs – with the average monthly rent in Dublin now over €2000 and evictions, once again, on the increase if landlords say they are selling the property.
The various waiting lists for social housing have more than 120,000 families and individuals, many waiting more than 10, 15 or more years, while councils built only 1,198 homes last year.
Those who are allowed on the waiting lists are entitled to rent support via the Housing Assistance Payment.
HAP is there to help those on lower incomes meet their rent at a time when rents are through the roof.
But the rent limits allowed for HAP are hopelessly inadequate.
It is virtually impossible to find anything in Dublin within the existing limits.
The income limit for social housing is also ridiculously low and has not been changed since 2011.
Many working people on low and modest incomes are now finding themselves removed from housing lists entirely if their
We need to reduce rents and ensure they remain affordable into the future
income increases, even slightly. When they are put off the list they also lose any rent support and any eligibility for emergency accommodation.
In the last year, my constituency of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, for example, removed more than 30 working families from the housing list because they were over the limit, even though their income would never allow them to afford the rents or house prices being charged in the private market.
Some of these families are now homeless or facing homelessness, but are entitled to no support because their income is above the income threshold.
I have met many of these people who are essentially being punished for working, getting a small pay increase or being promoted.
Those that manage to find a rental property are stuck paying a rent, often of around €2,000 per month with no rent support and if they are evicted because their landlord decides to sell the property, they are not eligible for emergency accommodation.
At the height of the Covid pandemic the Government, introduced temporary emergency measures to halt all evictions, ban rent increases and they moved many families out of unsuitable overcrowded hotel accommoda
tion. Once the Government removed these measures and protections, renters found themselves, once again, living with the constant threat of eviction, of being homeless and with unaffordable rents.
The urgency for the Government to take radical measures to solve this dire housing crisis is even greater as we need to provide refuge for many thousands of desperate people fleeing Ukraine.
The Government must imme
diately declare a new emergency and bring in measures to provide secure homes for all those in need.
We need to requisition the many tens of thousands of empty and derelict homes and properties across the country and put an immediate stop on all evictions.
We need to reduce rents and ensure they remain affordable into the future by introducing a proper system of rent controls. We need to increase the income limits for social housing support, so that all
those who are priced out of the housing market get the support they need.
Crucially, we need to stop relying on private developers to deliver social and affordable housing.
We urgently need a state building company so that councils can start to house the 120,000 families and individuals on their lists, and to build tens of thousands of genuinely affordable homes for working people.