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THE GOVERNMENT is to establish a new rental service to help deal with the growing social housing and homelessness crisis.
As part of measures agreed at Cabinet and announced by junior minister Jan O’Sullivan this afternoon, moves will be taken to coordinate the efforts of both government bodies and voluntary organisations.
The two-and-a-half-year plan will work to ensure all individuals and families can easily secure suitable accommodation.
It aims to deliver 2,700 units specifically for homeless people by the end of 2016.
The minister with responsibility claimed that the problem “in the short term” will be solved with “significant supply from vacant units, with construction, acquisition and NAMA units also coming on stream and providing homes for people who are currently homeless”.
Currently, there are 127 people sleeping rough in Dublin and 142 families in hotel accommodation.
O’Sullivan also revealed that €35 million will be put aside to renovate local authority housing, which should free up 1,750 units over the coming months.
Another €25 million in capital funding will be released, targeted at projects for those who are homeless.
“This funding will comprise a combination of construction and acquisition projects that will provide appropriate units quickly,” explained O’Sullivan, who said the plans were “ambitious but realistic”.
Clúid Housing Association has welcomed the government’s response with its head of policy Simon Brooke noting that “homelessness is a solvable problem”.
“Levels of homelessness in Ireland are not large compared with other countries. The Homelessness Implementation Plan is ambitious, but it is achievable if everyone is really prepared to work together.”
Brooke said that first priority must be given to acquiring properties that can be quickly converted for use by families who would otherwise be staying in hotels and individuals who would be forced to stay in hostels.
He suggested that empty hotels and State buildings could be viable options for conversion.
Commenting on NAMA’s potential role, Brooke added: “Although many ghost estates are not suitable for social housing, either because of their location or the quality of their construction, there are still empty dwellings across the country that can be brought into use for social housing. Clúid is currently in negotiation for the purchase of over 300 such dwellings across the country through NAMA.”
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I feel some déjà vu.
The government have been announcing the same money to renovate their thousands of dilapidated social houses over….. and over again.
So on top of Dublin’s 4 councils, each with their own staff & budget, we get a new quango to look into things.
Fix your housing stock….. Ditch the new quango!
Yet another agency…… they love a good aul agency!
This is the usual crap they come up with. WE DONT WANT ANOTHER STUPID AGENCY! Release the NAMA housing stock. That would be actually doing something.
“either because of their location or the quality of their construction” But these are OK for the rest of us who have to pay for our homes?
This is going to cause trouble if “homeless ” families are prioritised. This will lead to accusations of queue jumping with families leaving homes to skip up to the top of the housing list.
can you blame them?
Claim you’re homeless and jump the housing list Q, war of the lower classes begins!
Do you think people would genuinely leave their homes to ‘jump a queue’ in the chance that they get a better house? Your argument essentially boils down to the government’s plan creating a moral hazard in encouraging people to become homeless which is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
Ignoreland, it happens as was shown recently when one woman didn’t want to live in her house in athy. Even families living with their own families have to prove homeless by effectively moving out or saying they have. You are nit considered homeless until you have nowhere to go.
another quango,,, more money for the labour hacks
35 million for the housing problem……who are they kidding?
So where do we get the money to kit out all these empty houses and empty state buildings and hotels, beds, sinks, etc etc etc are not free.
Also kitting out empty state buildings is not a long term solution and would be an awful long term waste of money, also such buildings would have to meet certain health and safety standards. You can’t just throw familys into what used to be old office buildings and say…there ya go there’s the bathroom.
We do not want a Homelessness Implementation Plan. We have all the homelessness that we can handle. Why not have a Homelessness Eradication Plan?
Eradicating the homeless seems a little heartless to me but it would be a faster solution I suppose.
You may possibly be confusing your nouns and adjectives.
The liffey, it’s a natural resource.
*Tell me when will you be mine, quango quango quaaaaago*
Total and utter twaddle.
My old Garda station (stepaside) has people living in it already, signs up from Camelot saying protected by occupation, it’s weird seeing washing hanging on the line in the car park, where are these evicted people going to live?
Are u serious? Didn’t think things were that bad its shocking really Ireland is like a 3rd world country unless you were born into wealth its v hard to survive.soon the only people left here will be elderly and immigrants most young people now are gone to better horizons
Eric,
Camelot put people in as house sitters not really much of a solution. Once property is sold, rented house sitters out, can join the ranks of homeless.
Not knocking Camelot just pointing out that there properties are in no way a permanent or even long term home.
And politicians.
Tracy that isn’t true & in fact the number of emigrants returning is at an all time high. Most of my friends are back from Aus and Canada. Two are going this summer but are leaving good jobs to go and to be honest it’s more adventure and being sick of the weather than anything else. Ireland is not like a 3rd world country, clearly you haven’t been to one and our homeless problem is tiny in comparison to cities like Barcelona and Rome.
OK.just from everything I’m reading in the media and a person I know in the same situation has my opinion that way.
Plus i know lots of student nurses are all planning on going to UK or Canada or oz because of what the proposed wage the government has for when they are registered nurses has me thinking that way.
I didnt know a lot are coming back to Ireland.
Freeloader eradication plan begins
Why not rent local authority houses without spending 20k on renovations? Also, local authority tenants should be responsible for the upkeep of their properties. This would save millions.
Saw two of these homeless in the city centre yesterday in Spar, they attempted to shop lift first of all, then started shouting about vodka at all the people in the shop, then one fell over and the other started to shout ‘there’s no security camera by the door, say that guy hit you and knocked you over’ ‘he hit him and knocked him over’ at some poor tourist who happened to be standing near them.
I don’t see what the point is of people like this somewhere free to live. Surely its just a place they can wreck while they continue to drink and act like degenerates. They had no regard for others around them or society at a large.
Cak,
How do you know the two were homeless?
A large number of homeless nowadays actually have jobs, just can’t find payable accommodation.
These sound a bit like addicts, who when high don’t care how much attention they bring to themselves same as when they need something. Homeless tend to be quite and not want to attract attention
Eh, surely this is something the already existing Housing Agency should be used for? Do we really need another agency?
Its just like the famine days when wheat was exported, we have thousands of houses lying idle and a homeless list growing, its time the goverment stopped thinking about filling the pockets of the elite, release the NAMA housing stock!!!.
Exactly, same dynamics as in the famine years. People were sacrificed to protect capital. In this case the banks have to do a stress test in a few months time so driving up the price of houses (taxpayer subsidized deposit subsidies for the young and gullible first time buyers) will make the negative equity position of most house loans look better. Unfortunately it will also lead to landlords selling up to pay off their unsustainable mortgages and then putting the renters into homeless hostels or ditches. Just like the homeless in ditches in the famine years to “protect” the price of corn in England.
A “New Government Agency”? Let joy be unconfined – de job is oxo.
It will be a costly exercise in most cases to convert state buildings (offices) into accommodation due to the infrastructure of the buildings. Not so much for hotels, so they might work.
My main question is where are these hotels, middle of the countryside. No public transport, local shops etc.
And probably in areas without high rates of homelessness, don’t know of many in Dublin.
Yes I am aware that there are other cities and towns besides Dublin but I have no idea how many empty hotels there are in other towns/cities hence comment restricted to Dublin.
Although I suspect not much difference.
Seems like FG/Labour have realized the writing is on the wall and thus are preparing a new raft of jobs for the boys/girls that get dumped from the election on Friday. I wonder how many of them will pop up in this new quango after the weekend. Quite clever actually.
Why don’t the government just buy up all the land off the developers, dig a big hole in it and bury all of us in it. There problem solved.
If there is a new agency can I get a job with them, promise to become a supporter of all polices and carry on the good work done by others who have in te past involved with this problem. Not a lot.
Aics
By job I do of course mean senior management. Don’t want to be an oink having to talk to toes with problems might be a bit stressful and as for most junior civil servants not particularly well paid and no expenses
I can see another job for a quango here. Shitty little graduates and paper shufflers drafted in while people on this situation suffer. Shame on the government
This is a good idea and if it happens it will be great. It does come a few days before an election so I am trying not to be cynical but we need to tackle homelessness across Dublin and not just provide social housing to homeless people but also shorten the huge waiting lists.
127 doesn’t actually seem like very many at all
I’ve no problem with the State providing accomadation for the homeless and needy – but if they trash it – evict them IMMEDIATELY.
Also for an unmarried mother – the Father or Father’s, should be chased up and made pay maintenance.
This is the greedest country in the world there are hundreds of ghosts estates empty yet people are homeless have we lost all humanity that we wont do anything if we dont get paid
Sure what about hotels.that closed I know the great Sothern in Galway by GMIT closed since 2006 I think and it’s still sitting there empty and clarinbridge court hotel in Galway im sure there r loads more
This is a good initiative by the Government. Of course empty hotels, empty government properties and empty properties and houses of all sorts should be used to house the homeless.
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