‘Hundreds Of Underused Or Overcrowded Tenancies’

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Screengrab of an interactive graph created by Dublin Inquirer

This morning.

In the Dublin Inquirer

Lois Kapila reports:

Hundreds of Dublin City Council-owned homes are overcrowded, while hundreds of others remain underused, council figures suggest.

….Of the one-bedroom council homes in the Dublin City Council area, 111 have three or more people living in them.

For two-beds, 243 have six or more people living in them. For three-beds, 46 have nine or more people living in them. For four-beds, four households have 12 or more people living in them.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are homes that are emptier. For three-beds, 823 have only one person living in them. For four-beds, 113 have one person in them, and 232 have two people in them.

“The bottom line is that there are hundreds of underused or overcrowded tenancies or homes where Dublin City Council is the landlord,” Cuffe said.

…“It’s a minefield this whole issue,” says Cuffe. “We’ve seen huge controversy in the UK, where taxation was proposed on empty bedrooms. I don’t think we should go down that road.”

“But at a time when we have tens of thousands of homeless people in the city, we do have to look at a better use of the limited housing stock that we have,” he says.

Hundreds of Council Homes are Overcrowded, While Others Are Underused, Figures Show (Lois Kapila, Dublin Inquirer)

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17 thoughts on “‘Hundreds Of Underused Or Overcrowded Tenancies’

  1. ollie

    Good old Broadsheet, publish half an article to suit a certain agenda.
    I have an idea, let’s forcibly evict all those who are underusing a house, maybe start with the President who lives in a house wth 95 rooms.

    1. millie st murderlark

      Well if you don’t like the political leanings you’re free to jog on and find somewhere a bit more to your taste.

      I’m sure you’d be missed.

        1. millie st murderlark

          Sorry.

          I keep breaking my own new year’s resolution to not be such a snarky bitch. Harder than it looks.

    2. George

      Maybe they could be relocated to accommodation that is of a more suitable size. That is not eviction.

    3. scottser

      nobody is suggesting ‘forcibly evicting’ anyone in a council tenancy based on occupant numbers. however, it is a sensible proposition that given a housing allocation is based on an assessment of housing need, that the assessment of need does not end once a tenancy is given. housing need should be continuous in a tenancy and if someone doesn’t need a three bed they should be downsized to a one or two bed. lkewise, a single person who is currently allocated a one bed can be transferred to a larger unit if their need changes to include more family – why can’t it work the other way around?

  2. anne

    How do you go about turfing single people out of what may have been the family home then, because it has a few bedrooms?

    1. Rob_G

      Offer them an alternative council property that is better suited to their needs?

      If a family is living in a council property that is too small for them, the council would (ideally) move them to a larger property; I don’t see why they should not do the same when a property is too big for someone’s needs, either.

  3. Junkface

    The overcrowding in small homes looks the most dangerous revelation from this. If an apartment building went on fire, with many overcrowded apartments it could be a disaster. Do Irish people have confidence in the Fire safety standards of their buildings? I hope they are being brought up to code if not.

  4. Amorphous Kerry Blob

    I’m subscribed to the Dublin Inquirer. As you might expect from my name, I’m not resident in Dublin.
    That might sound a tad strange, but that’s how good I think the publication is.

  5. Worlds Biggest Ranter

    If only life was that simple.

    My mother is one of these people living alone in a three bed property in a Dublin location. She’d love to move to something smaller but unfortunately A) smaller does not mean cheaper in the area she lives and B) through consequence of past Gov policy, should she want to live closer to me, it involves moving 40 miles from Dublin to a place she doesn’t call or doesn’t want to call home with poorer facilities & long journeys to visit friends and family. There is absolutely no incentive for her to relinquish that three bedroom home.

    1. George

      The article concerns properties being let by DCC. As the landlord they set the price so smaller could of course mean cheaper in the circumstances discussed here.

    1. Cian

      So they just move the homeless people into the homes of people with an empty bedroom.
      boom. problem solved.

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