Ballymun demonstration calls for vacant homes to be made available

Community activists and the residents of Ballymun Travelodge staged a demonstration last week highlighting the large amount of vacant housing around the Ballymun area with a poster campaign.

Posters reading ‘This House Could Be A Home’ were pasted to the doors of numerous boarded up buildings, some of which have been empty for at least three years.

The demonstration was organised after tenants of the Ballymun Travelodge claimed they were asked to leave the accommodation with little notice on Tuesday, April 20 by Dublin City Council.

The local authority said that no tenant was requested to leave and tenants can stay in the accommodation until June 15.

In a statement released by the residents, they said that many of the empty houses “were fit for purpose” and that they would be happy to move into them.

Residents are meeting with DCC and Dublin Regional Housing Executive (DRHE) on an “ongoing basis in relation to their housing needs and issues they have encountered while homeless, including lost years on the housing list and issues in DCC/DRHE emergency accommodation.”

On Friday, April 23, residents and the tenant’s union, CATU Ireland, held a socially distanced protest outside Civic Offices in Ballymun.

Since then, the group has begun highlighting other local housing issues, including vacant council properties, the HAP/Rent Allowance Ban in Ballymun and the number of private developments they say are “gentrifying” the community.

Jeri Byrne of the Ballymun Soup Run, who supported the demonstration said: “Some of the houses we highlighted today have been vacant for three years and more, we highlighted them in 2018 and visited them again today, this is not good enough”

Jennifer, a Travelodge resident said: “Today on just the Shangan side of Ballymun we found 23 vacant homes, we were told by the council that there are no allocations in Ballymun.

“All of us in the Travelodge, and many in homelessness, just like us, would jump at the chance of one of these homes”.

People Before Profit Conor Reddy said that it’s “beggars belief that there are so many long term vacant properties in an area with such a high level of housing need.

“These properties need to be renovated and allocated as soon as possible.”