Council says its modular homes are still on track

DUBLIN City Council says the 22 modular homes being built in Poppintree will be ready by the end of the month and construction of 40 units in Finglas will begin in July despite delays in the tendering process.

Last week the council was forced to seek new tenders for 131 of the homes around Dublin after insufficient applications from builders.

The decision to initiate a new tendering competition was met with disappointment from the city’s homeless charities.

“We were obviously disappointed to learn that Dublin City Council has had to cancel a tender process,” said CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, Pat Doyle.

“We now understand that the tender will be reissued and that the local authority does not believe the tender problems will impact on the deadline for the delivery of the housing units.

“The proposed units are urgently needed, giving the growing homeless emergency.”

Focus Ireland said it feared delays in providing the homes following the decision to start a new competition just days after the charity issued new figures showing a shocking record total of 125 families becoming homeless during January in Dublin.

“This crisis is not DCC’s fault as they are struggling to cope with more and more families becoming homeless every month,” said Advocacy & Communications Manager, Roughan Mac Namara.

“It is vital that the next Government – whoever makes it up – learns the lessons from how this crisis deepened to an emergency situation.”

Dublin City Council’s homeless staff are now working to place homeless families currently living in hotels in the 22 two-story units in Poppintree.

The council also says it’s aiming for 40 modular homes in Finglas as well as others in Belcamp, Ballyfermot and Drimnagh to be completed by the autumn.

The four Dublin local authorities are working towards the further delivery of a further 350 units approximately across the Dublin region to address the temporary accommodation needs of families now in commercial hotels.

Figures released last week showed that 7,000 people accessed homeless accommodation in the Dublin region during 2015, and that the rate of family homelessness continues to increase.

According to DCC statistics there were 769 families in emergency homeless accommodation in January, an increase of over 80 on December’s figures.

It’s believed the increase in January may be down to families deferring their decision to contact or access homeless services until after Christmas. 

A total of 125 new families presented to homeless services in the Dublin region during January, while 39 departed from services over the same period. 

An analysis of the data relating to the newly presenting families confirmed that the majority had either been given notice to quit from private rented accommodation, suffered a relationship breakdown or were living in overcrowded accommodation.

Both Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust are urging the new Government to tackle homelessness as a matter of urgency.

Pat Doyle of Peter McVerry Trust said that the charity would continue to engage with political parties and politicians to ensure that housing is to the fore of the political agenda.

“The next Government must prioritise the housing and homeless emergency,” he said.

“We believe there is a clear need to appoint a full cabinet minister for housing and homelessness. The scale of the housing and homeless issues clearly requires real political leadership at the most senior levels of Government to resolve the issue.

“Politicians also need to back modular home delivery so we get as many homes delivered in 2016 as physically possible, otherwise the numbers in homelessness will continue to spiral upwards.” 

Focus Ireland said it was vital for the next Government to take immediate action to raise rent supplement to keep people in their existing homes.

“Focus Ireland takes no pleasure is having warned the Government of this current family homeless crisis three years ago in our Pre-budget Submission which highlighted that many families were then at a dangerous tipping point between home and homelessness,” said Roughan Mac Namara.

“In 2012, an average of eight families were becoming homeless in Dublin each month. This has now shot up to an average of 60 families presenting as homeless to Focus Ireland’s family services in Dublin every month last year and now we see that a shocking 125 families became homeless last month alone.”