Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I raise an issue that arose just before Christmas. Two weeks ago, I tabled a question to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage relating to a family in Crumlin that was facing possible homelessness. The family, with two children, one of whom has autism, had been renting the same house for 18 years. The landlord wanted to sell the house and because of his relationship with the family, he approached Dublin City Council, DCC, to offer it the property for sale. He wanted to keep the family in their home. He was told that the council was not acquiring properties as before. Councillor Pat Dunne followed this up with the housing manager but was told that due to a directive issued by the Minister in December, DCC was prohibited from buying the property. In his reply to my question, the Minister said he was keen that local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, avoid competing with potential private purchasers for available properties. Fortunately, I just heard today that DCC has exercised its discretion and has agreed to buy the property.

The reversal of the policy of encouraging local authorities and AHBs to buy housing stock instead of building directly would make sense if the State was building the level of public housing that is required but that is not happening. In the midst of a homelessness crisis, it is a blunt and crude measure which could have resulted in a family being made homeless as a direct consequence of a Government directive. Homelessness is on the rise and has increased by 14% since May 2021. There were 9,099 people in emergency accommodation in November, including 2,548 children. According to the Simon Community, only 11% of the rental properties that were available in December accepted the housing assistance payment, HAP, which equates to 148 out of a total of 1,350 properties across 16 areas, including major cities.

The concern of the Minister is that local authorities and AHBs buying up properties was partly responsible for squeezing people out of the market but the real issue is the role of institutional investors. Government policy is to encourage such investors. An update to Housing for All states that the Department is engaging with institutional investors to encourage sustainable investment in residential accommodation. Of the €12 billion needed to build 33,000 units per year, which is the target in Housing for All, a full €10 billion is expected to come from the private sector. This reliance on the private sector and the policy to effectively stop building public housing which dates from the 1980s are at the root of the housing and homelessness crisis.

The targets in Housing for All are not being met either by the private sector, the local authorities or the AHBs. In total, 20,400 houses were built in 2021, which is 12,000 below the target, as also happened in 2020 and 2019. That is a total of 36,000 houses below the target in three years. Between 2017 and 2020, the total of social housing stock only rose by less than 10,000. The Housing for All target is to build 9,000 social housing units per year but in the first three quarters of last year, just 3,144 units were built and two thirds of these were not new builds but were bought from private developers.

The situation is a mess and the people suffering the most are the aforementioned family in Crumlin and many other families who could be facing homelessness in the future. Will the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government change the directive issued to the local authorities and permit priority acquisitions in specific circumstances so that families and individuals do not face eviction into homelessness?

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