Working families having rents increased unfairly, Carey says

South Dublin County Council members voted by 16 votes to 15 to shoot down a review of rent increases for council tenants and working families.

At this month’s meeting of SDCC, a motion was put forward by Sinn Féin councillor William Carey, calling for a review of council tenants having their rent increased as part of legislation that was drawn up in 2020.

In the 2020 budget, a criteria was established where households that met the limit for local authority housing were to be taxed a 10% surcharge on all household income.

Carey said that the function, which was drawn up for the 2020 budget negotiations, should be revisited in the context of the current cost-of-living crisis, and that an additional payment on working children still living in council homes should be scrapped.

He explained that in some cases, families have their income assessed at a rate of 20%, leading to council property rents exceeding market rents, with some council rents exceeding as much as €1600 per month.

In February, a meeting of SDCC’s strategic policy committee recommended a review of the differential rent scheme, which calculates how much rent is owed in the context of social housing based on the income of a household.

Per Carey, SDCC are using it as a pretext to increase rents for council tenants, and that working families are being targeted; he said that the “mistake” needed to be rectified.

SDCC asserted that it was a “reserved function” of management to set the rents for tenants and that a review is already underway on the differential rent system, but Carey said that there was no way for councillors to make submissions or have input.

He said the current system was “unacceptable” and put the motion forward in a bid to shine a light on the democratic loophole.

He explained, “the problem with this new criteria is that all these incomes are being combined as one single account. In many cases, but in an individual context, they would all qualify for housing assistance on their own.”

“Nobody is arguing that people who are earning a living or collecting social welfare payments should not be paying rent. It is simply that each of these should be assessed as an individual in the home and treated as such.”

Carey added, “it should also be noted that any failure to collect these rents invariably leads to arrears placed upon the main tenant who ends up carrying this debt.

Fine Gael councillor Brian Lawlor disagreed with Carey’s assessment.

Lawlor said the issue was already litigated at a February meeting of SDCC, accusing Sinn Féin of “rehashing the issue.”

At the February meeting of SDCC, the council agreed to a motion by People Before Profit councillor Kay Keane which said that any differential rent scheme, similar to what has already been brought in by Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, must be carried out in a “fair” way.

Lawlor asserted that “they (Sinn Féin) voted for it in the Budget” and that the issue was settled, to which Mayor Pamela Kearns said it was her decision to have the issue relitigated.

Kearns said, “I’ll suffer the consequences, I’m the Mayor, and I’ll say it’s going to the floor,” the Labour councillor said.

Lawlor remarked that Sinn Féin were looking for “wiggle room” with this issue, and expected the issue to be brought up again at the next council meeting.

The Firhouse–Bohernabreena councillor noted that in the other 31 local authorities across Ireland, the average rent is above 15% for all tenants, and that money is then redistributed to local authorities.

“We are at a shortfall here; council homes are being let go, and we are being delayed on the works because there is no money coming in from rents. I welcome the executive introducing a rent with all the money going back into the councils, which makes it fair.”

Keane did not appreciate Lawlor asserting that her motion, which she submitted in February, was not the same as the one being put forward by Sinn Féin. 

The People Before Profit councillor explained that Carey’s motion involved current rent reviews, whereas her motion concerned the proposed rent reviews.

She explained that South Dublin County Council implement a yearly increase based on earnings, another review is due to take place, and that her motion was separate to Carey’s.

“I mentioned nothing about a current rent review in my motion, it’s the rent review coming down the line – you can smile, but it’s there in black and white. You brought up my motion, but it’s not the same motion.”

Keane said that a family approached her, explaining that as a result of the rent reviews, their rent has gone up from €131 a week to €200 a week.

“I don’t know if there was a mistake in calculating this rent, but that’s €70 the family cannot afford; the father is on disability. That’s just one case, and this is going to cause hardship for people.”

Teresa Walsh, of SDCC’s management suite, explained that the differential rent scheme is a function of the local authority and that the proposed rent increase will be discussed in May, stressing it would be “fair and equitable.”

“Of the five examples we gave at the SPC about average rents, South Dublin was well below the average in respect of the four different households we’ve discussed,” and noted that rents in South Dublin were lower than those in other local authorities in Dublin.

Walsh said, “this income is necessary in order to proceed with maintenance and planned refurbishment of our housing stock.”

“We have to look at our rents, we have to maintain our housing stock going forward, and we will require additional income to do so going forward,” she told the meeting.

Carey said, “when we start talking about averages, the thing that gets lost there are families that are getting hit by these increases, and they aren’t necessarily families on large incomes, they are families with young adult children who are entering the workforce, but when those incomes are entered into a family income that then becomes 20% of their income.”

Carey noted an example from a constituent where a family who were renting from the council had their rent drastically increased, and said it was a microcosm of the current rules surrounding rent for council tenants.

He explained that once the adult children’s rent was factored into the family’s income, their rent increased from €236 a week to €383 a week, which he said was above market rates.

“We have made a mistake, and I am asking us to review it; I am asking for a system where we, as councillors, have an input into the system.”

Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, Social Democrats and some independents voted for the motion, but Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and other independents voted against, with an abstention from Independent Ireland, meaning that the final result was 15 in favour of the review and 16 against.