COMMENT: Parties need to unite on housing crisis

IT SOUNDS like a no-brainer. With families languishing on long waiting lists for housing and the homelessness crisis finally being acknowledged as a national emergency, it seems inconceivable that there should be 230,050 properties lying empty across the country.

There was a lot of fighting talk last week after the shocking figures were revealed by the Housing Agency. 

New Minister for Housing, Simon Coveney, indicated that bringing vacant property stock back into use would form a big part of the Government’s strategy. To achieve this, the minister said he wanted to find a way to “incentivise” property owners.

Fianna Fail TD Barry Cowen was more stick than carrot in his approach, proposing that local authorities seize derelict properties under compulsory orders and make them available for residential or retail purposes. It’s hard to argue with his logic.

And it’s certainly no exaggeration to describe homelessness as an emergency. Focus Ireland expressed serious concerns after the latest figures showed that the numbers of homeless children have almost doubled in a year. 

The situation in the capital is particularly dire. During one week in April, there were 1,736 homeless children in 888 families in Dublin – an 84 per cent increase since the same month in 2015. Of these families, 218 were placed in homeless accommodation, while 670 families were put in commercial hotels.

Dublin City Council confirmed that, in May, a total of eight families with children availed of a ‘one-night-only’ placement into emergency accommodation for homeless adults. This was to avoid the risk of the families sleeping rough.

At the same time, there are 7,995 vacant houses and 16,321 empty apartments in Dublin. Doesn’t this seem particularly immoral?

The situation is compounded by a dysfunctional private rental sector where, despite some last-minute Government intervention last year, rents are now higher than ever.

After the property bubble burst in post-boom Ireland, we all became very exercised about the blot on the landscape posed by ghost estates and unfinished apartments. With demand for accommodation now outstripping supply, vacant and derelict properties could present the Government with a very real opportunity to reap a social dividend from the housing crisis. 

Tradesmen could be taken off the dole to form part of a national taskforce to transform or finish empty units. This would be a win-win for the State, further reducing the social welfare bill while making a sizeable dent in housing lists, reported to be as high as 130,000 households nationally.

With a little bit of joined-up thinking, the housing crisis could be solved by properly managing the resources we already have. Politicians on all sides of the house have a duty to unite on the issue.