Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 5 May 2016

Committee on Housing and Homelessness

Minister for Finance

10:30 am

Photo of Catherine ByrneCatherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise two issues with the Minister. As he knows well, I was reared in the inner city surrounded by Dublin City Council housing developments and flat complexes in Ballyfermot, Inchicore, Crumlin and Drimnagh. It always astonished me that the city council was unable to continue the building system it operated in terms of local authority housing. If we are serious about supplying social housing, or other forms of housing, we need to look back to the local authorities and perhaps restart investment in local authorities to allow them build. I was born and reared in a Dublin City Council house and the normal practice was that most of the maintenance of the house was done by the council, but that no longer happens because of the reduction in staff. That is leading to many properties falling into a very bad state of disrepair and ending up back with the council, and it takes a long time to bring them back into suitable condition to allow them be put back on the market. If there is any way this committee can encourage a policy on local authorities taking up the mantle and building houses again, that is something I would like to see happen.

I am glad the Minister raised the question about homelessness and housing because last week I raised with Mr. Dick Brady, the city manager, the 5,801 people who are homeless. I broke down the figure, as they did, for the number of adults and children and asked if he could give me a figure for the number of those who are family units. He came back with a figure of 790. Yesterday, I received the report before me - I was not at the launch but I read it last night - from the Mercy Law Resource Centre, which is in my constituency. Since 2014-15 there has been a 43% increase in homelessness and in terms of the breakdown for adults and children, the centre comes up with a figure of 912 homeless families. What the Minister said is true. If we were to house those who are homeless now, all we would need, according to this report, is 912 houses and we would be laughing.

The other question I asked Mr. Brady was whether the figures from the housing authorities across the city could be broken down to show the number of people being rehoused, the number on a transfer list and the number on a long-term list because part of the problem to do with homelessness is what we as a Government did in the past two years, and particularly in 2014 and 2015 when we declared homelessness as a priority. I could outline for the Minister some serious cases I dealt with where people handed back their keys to go on the homeless list and live in a hostel or hotel because they believe that if they are on the homeless list they will be made a priority.

In my short career in politics and my other career working voluntarily in the community, I dealt with families and children on a daily basis and I believe that in many ways the councils' figures are not the true figures for the number of units needed in the coming years. If we were to build thousands of houses based on some of the reports, I can guarantee we would have many houses lying idle in Dublin because they are not needed. We need exact figures from the local authorities on the number of family housing units that are needed. It is clear in this report that if we decided tomorrow to deal with the homeless crisis in this city and built 912 houses, we would address it. We need to nail the local authorities, so to speak, on the housing supply and the number of family units needed.

I am dealing with people now who have been on a transfer list for 12 or 13 years. They are accommodated by the city council but they are in units that are inadequate for the size of their growing families. One family has four grown-up children living in a two bedroom maisonette. That family should have been housed ten years ago but because of the homeless crisis and the increasing demand that the homeless should be a priority, many of those people will continue on that list and never rise to the top of it. I did not ask many questions but the way to go is as the Minister said, namely, give the local authorities the power to facilitate and supply social housing.

The number of houses bought for the tenants in St. Teresa's Gardens, Fatima Mansions and Dolphin House is huge.

The council has done a considerable job on the ground locally trying to buy houses through the funding from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, and also in filling many of the voids that were left there. In that sense, the local authorities are doing their job. However, we need to go back to them to get exact figures for how many homeless families we need to house.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.