Housing activists call on DCC to keep depot site for social housing

Local housing activists and politicians held a demonstration at Marrowbone Lane recently, calling on Dublin City Council to develop social housing at the council depot site, rather than selling it on to private developers.

People Before Profit councillor for the area, Tina MacVeigh says that the plan to construct social homes on the land has been in the pipeline for a couple of years.

“There has been in the past number of years a really good community plan to bring more than 300 houses and also much needed community and sporting facilities to this site on Marrowbone Lane,” she says.

“But that plan is under threat.

“This area is very much in need of housing — as we all know, we’re in the depths of a housing crisis — but the housing crisis is also a community crisis, because we’re crying out for community amenities, community centres, cultural centres and sporting facilities.”

However, MacVeigh says that with the enactment of the new Land Development Agency (LDA) legislation its feared that the site will be sold off to a property development firm instead

“There is a real danger now because of the changes to the LDA legislation which mean that the LDA can sell off public sites, like this one, to private developers without needing approval of the elected councillors.

“We’re very worried that this site, which is publicly owned and very close to the city centre, could constitute what they call “prime development land” and could be sold off to developers under the LDA,” she says.

The original plan for the site also proposed the development of sporting and communities, in addition to social housing.

“We’re saying that we want the community plan enacted,” says MacVeigh.

“Which is for community and sporting facilities as well as housing — and most importantly we want this site to stay in public ownership, we don’t want it to be sold off to private developers under the LDA.

“We’re starting the process of organising in our communities for a winter of housing discontent.

“We need to get back out onto the streets and we need to let this government know that the housing crisis has gone out of control.

“We need to keep the vultures out, we need to keep the private developers out and we need the state to invest in public housing on public land – housing and community facilities for the people.”

In 2019, Dublin City Council voted to rezone the Dublin 8 site so to allow the development of residential units on the land.