Rebuilding Ireland is Outdated

The launch of Rebuilding Ireland has just surpassed three years. Many factors have changed since the original plan was initiated. Some figures that were estimated at the time of the launch for Rebuilding Ireland are now out of date. Rebuilding Ireland needs to be re-examined for optimal use because it is not performing as it was initially supposed to.

When the plan was originally drafted, it was predicted that the current number of homeless people would be 65% lower than the current number. The plan was not originally supposed to solve the homeless problem of this magnitude (10,000+ people) which is one of the reasons why it is ineffective. Everybody that is involved in the housing crisis believes this number is lower than what the current statistic is and is not an accurate reflection. with that are not included in this study are people who are crowd surfing, people doubling up with their family, and people sleeping rough. In addition, the 800 people that have been granted refugee or protection are not calculated for.

The prior Minister for Housing signaled …

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Single Parents and Migrants at Greatest Risk for Homelessness According to New Report

If you identify as either a lone parent, migrant, or a member of a traveling community then you are at greater risk of homelessness according to Focus Ireland. Focus Ireland conducted a report examining the drivers of family homelessness in Dublin. The overarching idea was many families are being evicted from private rental properties and unable to find another place to live causing homelessness. Many of these families have a long history with residing in the same apartment and should not be threatened with homelessness due to the rising property prices and shortage of availability.

Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, appeared on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland to discuss his companies recent report. He was quoted saying, “the vast majority of the families surveyed had been living in the private rental sector without any problem until the crisis came along.”  Mike Allen has witnessed an increase in many property owners exiting the rental market especially those that are offering more affordable properties to rent. This is one of the many reasons contributing to the growing numbers of homelessness in …

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Rising rents will be followed by higher prices.

The lesser discussed problem of rising rents will be the rising prices of the next few years, we see it as a foregone conclusion that price pressure will be upwards as long as rents are rising.

This occurs for several reasons, first is that higher rents compel renters into the purchasing space, those that can move must have sufficient savings and earnings to do so, but equally, those that can afford high rents – and to escape them via a purchase, are exactly the ones who will make that choice.

There is a tricky relationship between rents and prices, but as can be seen from the chart showing the last 25yrs there is some correlation.

What we can see is that often when rents are rising that prices then catch up, at times rents can even be falling and prices still go up – this is perhaps due to the delayed nature of the commitment to a property contract which can be long drawn out.

What you don’t see for long in that chart is rents rising …

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TV3 Late Review, discussion on ‘a constitutional right to housing’

In this piece we were asked to contribute to a conversation on the constitutional right to housing. Maeve Regan from The Mercy Law Resource Centre discussed the merits of the idea which was put forward by the charity she heads up, while Karl Deeter took the view that an addition to the constitution of a right to housing won’t resolve the problem and that the right already exists.

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RTE Morning Ireland: ask Irish Mortgage Brokers about homelessness

We were asked by Morning Ireland to discuss homelessness and to iterate our view that the removal of bedsits which were a source of housing for people with low to no incomes was a mistake. Focus Ireland shared the view and made important points about their work being more than just putting roofs over peoples heads.

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Joan Burton made a housing issue worse

About four years ago many landlords were receiving letters which stated that rent supplement was going down, this was occurring irrespective of what point in your rental contract you were at. This was at the behest of Joan Burton, the issue of rent supplement was later divested because it was later to be taken over by DECLG.

The genesis of the current issues with much of this rest with Labour and Joan in particular, this isn’t pointed out in the press, but the people affected know it, which is why her name almost always appears on their placards (see image to the left for a recent example)

At the time tenants were getting a letter that stated ‘Rent limits were reduced on the 1/1/12. The new rent limits for a family of your size is now (whatever the price was). Can you ask your landlord to reduce your rent and fill in section 13 to reflect the reduction‘.

This was a unilateral move, and one that paid no attention to the …

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