Tag Archives: Housing

9040208590402088

At the College of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin this morning were from top: Dessie Ellis TD, Sinn Féin housing spokesman; Mary Lou McDonald, South Dublin County Councillor Eoin O Broin; Mary Lou McDonald

 

“Sinn Féin in government will deliver 100,000 new homes, will deliver security and certainty for tenants, will support home owners and buyers.
The housing crisis can and must be tackled, there is no short cut. The answer is obvious simple we need to start building houses again. We need rent control and we need to ensure quality building standards. We need to stop the profiteering of banks at the cost of mortgage holders.
All of this is possible, the resources are available, but it requires the political will. Sinn Féin has led out a plan to tackle the issue. Sinn Féin in government will deliver that plan.”

Sinn Féin Deputy President Mary Lou McDonald this morning.

Under the plan 36,500 “social and affordable homes” would be built before 2021.

Sinn Féin also promises to abolish the local property tax and introduce “rent certainty by linking rent increases to inflation”.

FIGHT!

Sinn Féin: Better for Housing – McDonald (SinnFéin)

Sinn Féin publishes its housing policy (RTÉ)

 

Hundreds queuing.

Waiting lists.

People wandering aimlessly.

Rose Doyle, in today’s Irish Times, reports:

Hamilton Park [in Castleknock] is funded by Nama. About half of the 44 houses in this first phase of three- and four-bedroom houses will be ready to move into before Christmas, the rest by spring 2016. Hamilton Park should be completed by 2018… The three-beds with 111sq m (1,200sq ft) and 112sq m (1,215sq ft) cost €395,000, the four-beds with 144sq m (1,550sq ft) and 150sq ft (1,615sq ft) are €490,000. A single, detached three-bedroom version is €425,000, and a detached four-bed, €550,000.

*jumps on ladder*

Pre-launch surge for homes in Castleknock (Irish Times)

NAMA and Social Housing

Previously: Meanwhile, In Castleknock

housingfundpost

Further to details revelealed by RTÉ’s Investigative Unit of where housing fund grant money ends up (the constituencies of senior government members)…

Out of work mapper Omar Sarhan writes:

I thought the RTE Investigates research into the housing grant allocation was quite good but sadly it lacked a map, so I decided I’d create one! From the rapturous applause my maps usually get on Broadsheet (this could be in my head) I think the audience would like it. You can get to the beautiful interactive version via my blog here…

Yesterday: Where The Housing Funds Go

000a23a6-614-1

The fruits of a RTÉ Investigation Unit probe of the allocation of housing funds.

It’s based on a scientific method.

Or something.

Ken Foxe, Of the RTÉ Investigative Unit, writes:

In 2010 under Fianna Fail, Mayo and Limerick City managed to get €4.2 million of the €79 million funding available, around 5.3% of the total.

However since the change of government Mayo and Limerick’s share of the pot has grown by 57%. Last year the two constituencies – home to Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and the then Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan – together received 8.3% of the total fund….

…If the money had been allocated strictly on the basis of population, the allocation should have been the equivalent of around €8.37 per head.

That is not what occurred last year however. Instead, Minister Jan O’Sullivan’s own constituency of Limerick City – also home to Finance Minister Michael Noonan – got €16.79 per person, the second highest rate in the country. Only one local authority area was higher, and that was Mayo, Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s home county, where funding per person was €17.05.….

Good times.

Housing funds favour counties of some senior politicians (RTÉ)

dscf1454

Without lifting a brick.

The housing assistance payment (HAP) scheme is aimed at people currently on the rent supplement scheme. The scheme was previously managed by the HSE and is now run by the Department of Social Protection.

During a debate on Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht Debate on Tuesday. Richard Boyd Barratt questioned Michael Layde of the  Department of Environment, Community and Local Government about a worrying anomaly.

Richard Boyd Barrett: “Is Mr. Layde aware of the shock people who have been on a housing waiting list for 12 or 15 years will feel when they discover that because they have been included in the HAP scheme they have been removed from the list? People have a right to feel very angry and cheated when they are removed from a housing list on which they have been for 12 years and have no chance of getting a council house, although they believed for ten to 15 years that they would in the end. Mr. Layde has countered, as has the Minister, by saying they can transfer. Is it not correct that they can transfer but only on medical or overcrowding grounds and that if they do not qualify on these grounds, they will not be able to transfer? They will be in private accommodation in a private landlord’s private property, the Department will deem them to be housed and they will be off the list, unless they can qualify on medical or overcrowding grounds. Is that not true?”

Michael Layde: “I do not know if the word “shock” is relevant. People will be communicated with and told. The initial phase will predominantly affect people in receipt of rent supplement who will transfer to the HAP in the same way as people in receipt of rent supplement have been transferring to the rental accommodation scheme for the past decade or so.”

Richard Boyd Barrett: “The difference is that they will be off the housing waiting list. A person on the list in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has a number and knows where he or she is on the list. Although a person with a number between 300 and 500 is consigned to ten years of waiting, he or she knows that at the end of it he or she will rise up the list and receive a council house. If a person is included in the HAP scheme, without being given any choice, he or she will be removed from the list and the ten years wait will be for nothing. Is that not true?”

Michael Layde: “People who move to the RAS are considered to have had their housing needs met. The same principle will apply under the HAP. Regarding movement thereafter within social housing, the principle is that they should be treated no less favourably than those on the main housing waiting lists. They will have the same option of moving within social housing as others. People’s situations will be improved immediately in that those in receipt of rent supplement will move from an income support to a social housing support, with the responsibility of the local authority for meeting their needs being clear. This represents a significant improvement in their position, reinforced by the fact that they, like any other social tenant, can move to a different form of social housing. If their needs prove to be continuous, bearing in mind that one of the objectives of the HAP is to facilitate people’s return to work as the economy improves and, perhaps, being able to meet their own housing needs.”

Boyd Barrett: “I do not mean to be confrontational, but I have very little time. I understand all of the points Mr. Layde has made. I accept that the council having some obligation to tenants is better. Let us call a spade a spade. People who have been on the housing waiting list for years and who previously had an entitlement to a council house will be removed from the list and no longer have that entitlement. Is that not a fact? When will people be told this? Will they be told when they are forced onto the HAP scheme? Although Mr. Layde has said people will not be treated any less favourably than if they were on the list, the only grounds on which one can secure a transfer are medical and overcrowding. Tens of thousands of families who previously had an expectation of being given a council house but who do not fit these criteria will not get a council house.”

Chairman [Michael McCarthy]: “Will Mr. Layde clarify the position? Is it a fact that a person who moves to the HAP will be removed from the housing waiting list?“Continue reading →

9_2vraC__400x400

The Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) logo

Ireland signed and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  in 1989.

In light of this, next year, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights will examine Ireland’s progress in relation to progress on protecting, respecting and fulfilling people’s basic rights on key issues such as education, health, housing, social security, workers’ rights, employment, protection of families and cultural life.

Further to this, the Free Legal Advice Centre (FLAC) is preparing a shadow independent report for the UN committee – to show the UN committee FLAC’s views of how Ireland has honoured its obligations.

The group will hold two thematic consultation sessions tomorrow in the Franciscan Friary, Merchant’s Quay, Dublin with the morning session (11am-1pm) concentrating on the right to housing and the afternoon session (2-4pm) on the right to social security.

FLAC is also calling for written submissions to be sent to the research team by May 30, 2014.

FLAC to lead shadow reporting process for ESC covenant (FLAC)

Previous: Mothers Without Homes

Serinna Corbett (above with son, Brian), a mother of four young children, told this week’s Limerick Leader of her campaign – across Facebook – to get re-housed.

She currently shares a three-bedroom council house with her four young children in Moyross, Co Limerick.

But, according to blogger Bock the Robber, Serinna is another example he (contentiously) argues of a growing culture of entitlement. The other being a certain couple from Killiney.

What do a millionaire Killiney couple and an unemployed Moyross mother of four have in common?  Not much, you might imagine, until you compare the demands they make and their complete blindness to the notion of personal responsibility.

…Serinna thinks her living conditions are beyond human endurance.  Having a 13 year old, and an 18-month-old sleeping in the same room is just wrong. It’s just not on. She wants a bigger house from the council.

According to Serinna, the 13-year-old has ADHD, which she says causes fits and hallucinations. (It doesn’t).  He might wake up in the middle of the night and attack the baby, she says.  Oddly, the obvious solution doesn’t seem to occur to her: bring the baby into your own bedroom.  No.  The baby must sleep in a place where he faces danger, just as the other children have done for five years now….

…Serinna’s clincher is this: there’s another baby on the way.  You have to stand back and think about this for a minute.  Another child on the way?  Well, how the hell did that happen?  Did a postcard arrive through the letterbox?  Hi, future mother.  See you soon.  Best wishes, Your New Baby.

 

When The World Owes You A Living (Bock the Robber)

Serinna interviewed on this morning’s  ‘Limerick Today’ (95FM) here.