‘Give the holiday homes to refugees’
THE Government should request the use of Ireland’s 60,000 empty holiday homes to house Ukrainian refugees, according to housing policy analyst Lorcan Sirr.
And if empty homes aren’t given up by private owners voluntarily, Dr Sirr said the State should consider bringing in a similar style legislation to that used during World War II.
Dr Sirr said: ‘The [Emergency Powers] Act gave the government the power to overtake people’s land and property rights. If people aren’t willing to give up their empty holiday homes, it might require the enactment of some temporary legislation to allow the government to acquire homes on a compulsory basis.’
Meanwhile, the number of housing offers for refugees from Irish people has risen to 14,988.
More than one in five pledges (21%) are for vacant properties, with 71% offers of shared accommodation, according to the latest figures provided by the Irish Red Cross.
A Department of Justice spokesman confirmed 4,030 Ukrainian refugees have arrived through Dublin Airport since the Russian invasion, with 996 arriving this week.
With potentially 80,000 to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees expected in weeks, medium term and long-term housing units will be needed quickly.
The Irish Hotel Federation (IHF) said preparations are in place for the industry to support families when they arrive.
A spokesman said: ‘We are aware that a number of hotels have been approached directly by the relevant authorities with regards to providing temporary accommodation.’
Dr Sirr said: ‘Building modular housing takes a lot of time and we currently have over 12% of our housing stock empty, around 245,000 empty housed according to the census, and that includes 62,000 holiday homes. We have a huge number of empty houses in the country.
He added that the Government should take the existing stock first, ‘rather than trying to go out and reinvent the wheel by building new housing or relying on the public to house people. In 2020, the Government only built 4,700 new social houses. If we take in, at a minimum, 20,000 refugees, all that stock will be absorbed straight away. The latest figures aren’t out yet for 2021 but it’s safe to say all of that stock will likely be absorbed too’.
‘We also have to consider the promises made by Government for those in need of social housing and the promises made to people in Direct Provision for housing. We’re not going to build our way out of this. The smart thing to do is to use out existing housing stock, if that requires some kind of new legislation, well, so be it.’