Government must not treat Shed-Sits as a substitute for purpose-built student accommodation
Government must not treat Shed-Sits as a substitute for purpose-built student accommodation - The Labour Party
Speaking at the Oireachtas Housing Committee today (28 April) Senator Laura Harmon said:
“Modular homes in the rent-a-room scheme cannot be used to substitute purpose-built student accommodation. Representatives from the Department of Further and Higher Education confirmed to me at the Housing Committee today that modular homes in rent-a-room situations may be counted towards targets as part of the student accommodation strategy. This is nothing but a cop out. We need more purpose-built student accommodation, not shed-sits.
“Minister James Lawless must clarify if modular homes will count towards student accommodation targets. Shed sits are not a solution, but a bandage being used on a high-level crisis. We must avoid overreliance on the private sector in this way and instead build purpose built public accommodation at scale.
“We must keep a close eye on this issue and not allow the Government to use these types of accommodation as a viable solution to the student housing crisis. I am also calling for urgent improvement to digs regulation and ensure these protections are communicated to tenants and landlords alike and properly enforced.
“There is a worrying trend of service charges being used to circumvent the rental pressure zone limitations. We have heard of cases in UCC and DCU where extortionate increases to service charges were used as a way to hike student rents. The Rental Tenancies Board (RTB) today advised students experiencing this to bring dispute cases against landlords they believe to be attempting to circumvent regulation in this way. Government must step in to protect renters from falling into exploitative arrangements of this kind.”