The housing crisis is geting more complex, more hopeless and more devastating

03 October 2018

Labour TD Brendan Ryan was today speaking in Dáil Éireann in support of the cross-party motion to enact emergency measures aimed at addressing homelessness. This followed the large ‘Raise the Roof’ housing demonstration outside Leinster House.

 Deputy Ryan said:

“Minister, The housing crisis is getting worse. It’s getting more complex, more hopeless and more devastating for people facing homelessness and for those who are already there.

“The sharp edge of the housing crisis right now is being felt where the private rental market is driving prices outside the reach of ordinary people. Without fail I have people at every one of my clinics who are receiving termination notices, many of which are invalid, they have to go to Threshold, back to their landlords, back to threshold, then engage with the council……back and forth, back and forth, all the while knowing that there is very little light at the end of the tunnel. Because there are very few units being built, Minister.

“HAP…HAP…HAP. That is all that’s being offered. But it is not an offer. HAP is a method of affording a home in the private rental market. It may provide a solution and I do agree it is a lot better than Rent Supplement but we need housing units Minister. 1, 2, 3 and 4-bed units. We need units for people with disabilities. We need units for older people. We need houses and we need apartments.

“We need to activate our land banks to deliver these new units and to deliver new communities. 

“Forget the private market; they will operate to their own ends as they always have. They sat and continue to sit on, their own land banks, parcelling them off in small chunks which serves to increase prices and profits. Not delivering enough and what they are delivering they are delivering for the few, out of reach of the many.

“Minister, you are diminishing the ability of Local Authorities to provide homes by leaning increasingly on Approved Housing Bodies. AHBs should only be there to supplement a Local Authority not to replace them as the primary deliverer of social and affordable housing. I see it in my own constituency in Fingal where Minister, the number of local authority schemes getting off the ground has stalled since 2016. The projects that are being delivered now are projects we pushed in between 2014 and early 2016.

“Now the strategy is HAP and Approved Housing Bodies. This crisis is only getting worse and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting ever dimmer and distant. Hope is running out.” 

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