30,000 families are in serious mortgage arrears. We need a radical plan to help them save their homes
DAVID HALL for president? A bankers’ worst nightmare may be on the cards as Michael D’s reelection bid hasn’t dampened the firebrand mortgage campaigner’s interest in a run for the Áras. He tells us how to solve the housing crisis and what he does when he takes time off from being the scourge of Irish banks.
Are you still interested in the presidency?
I’d love to run. I said I respect Michael D. But I feel the political elite are trying to control the election and this is regrettable. It’s essential there is an election for our democracy.
How would you make a difference?
I would say it as it is, and ensure all citizens have a voice, one that has a record of solving issues and speaking his mind. By covering up for no one and, importantly, being someone who cares about those who need help.
Would you not be more effective in the Dáil?
You would need to become a minister. If I was housing minister I’d bring in emergency legislation to allow a specialist team for a two-year period to grant planning permission for social and affordable housing. I would require banks to hand over all empty homes. I would reduce the strict landlord rules for housing bodies to open up more properties to housing those in emergency accommodation in a home.
We’re 10 years on from the financial crisis, so the mortgage arrears crisis should be all done and dusted, right?
Far from it. 30,000 families are in serious arrears. Those who are not eligible for social housing and can’t pay enough to restructure their mortgages are in great danger of losing their homes. A radical nonprofit loan-purchase scheme from banks is needed to keep these people in their homes. We are working on such a pilot currently.
Your new non-profit agency iCarehousing does exactly that by buying distressed homes from banks, with debts written off, and renting them back to the original owners. How many families have been helped so far?
We have just begun buying the first batch of 20 houses and expect to have 100 by the end of the year with, hopefully, a further 100 families homes being bought next year.
You’ve been doing deals with AIB and KBC, so banks can’t be all bad. Are they getting better?
No – worse. Banks are large, disorganised, dysfunctional organisations with out-of-date systems. They have delayed dealing with mortgage arrears and, as a result, home owners in trouble have a greater risk of losing their home unless they seek professional advice on how to handle their debt.
Across Europe, successful social housing schemes are mainly run by agencies, not local authorities who have a poor record here. Do you think this is the way to go?
This should be left with approved housing bodies and not local authorities. But approved housing bodies need to become more professional and businesslike as vultures who only care about profit are circling this area.
Do you agree with a recent report calling for increased local authority rents and ending the right to pass on social housing to offspring (in order to fund more social housing)?
Many well-off people don’t care about those in social housing as they view them as spongers. Apart from being wrong, they don’t actually understand that the dysfunctional system is costing them as taxpayers. So, while they don’t like social housing tenants, they should take their snobbery out on the system, not the tenants.
Best advice/tip?
Smile, respect everyone, even those whom you don’t like. Be careful judging, as you don’t know what anyone has going on.
Guilty pleasure?
Family breaks in Kellys in Rosslare.
How do you treat yourself (and family?
Two holidays: one abroad (usually Portugal) and one in Achill – which I’m off on shortly.