Housing announcements represent good progress in meeting demand – Keane

Fine Gael Seanad Spokesperson on Housing, Cáit Keane, has welcomed the news that over 800 housing units are currently being made available to help meet demand and protect homeless and vulnerable households.

“The announcement that over 800 housing units are being made available for Dublin over recent and coming months, represents good progress in the efforts to ease the demand for housing, and protect homeless and vulnerable households.

“Since February, Local Authorities had been mandated to ensure that 50% of all housing allocations go to homeless and vulnerable households. This has so far yielded almost 530 homes for these households in Dublin over the last few months.

“More recently Dublin City Council has identified in excess of 100 houses for purchase and 100 for leasing by Dublin City Council. This is in addition to 100 houses being made available specifically for homeless people from via the Approved Housing Bodies in the voluntary sector.

“The current problems with homelessness are the result of the very complicated factors and the solution lies in the provision of more housing. The announcement of the recent 800 units represents good progress but a lot more can be done.

“A big part of the solution is bringing vacant housing units back into use and almost €6 million has been provided across Dublin for this purpose in 2015. 3,000 housing voids have so far been brought back into use across the country. 

“There is also plenty of scope for the building of more housing units in Dublin. The recent Urban Regeneration and Housing Bill introduced a Vacant Site Levy to encourage development on sites that were being left vacant.

“This Government is responding proactively to the current demands on housing. Minister Coffey is working hard to resolve the issues and an upcoming Cabinet subcommittee will look again at all the options. Housing funding was increased by 40% to €800m in the last Budget. We have a €4billion Social Housing Strategy to deliver 35,000 housing units by 2020 and to reduce the waiting lists nationally by 25% by 2017. We need the input of all stakeholders and we need to stick to the plan to ensure success.”