Affordable rental accommodation needed
Peter McVerry Trust, the national housing and homeless charity, has called on the Government to fund the building of affordable rental housing. The call was made following the release of a new rental report by property website Daft.ie, which found rents in Dublin are now 18% above their Celtic Tiger peak levels.
Pat Doyle, CEO at Peter McVerry Trust, said: “The rental figures are deeply worrying and tell us that we will continue to see people who are unable to maintain or secure new rental accommodation ending up in homeless services. The rising cost of rent is the main source of new homeless cases, and our worry is that we will see even more households losing their homes as the situation worsens.”
“Unfortunately, rising rents also make our job of finding homes more difficult. At the moment we don’t have enough social housing so we are overly reliant on the private rental sector. If rents continue on their runaway path, and alternative affordable supply is not forthcoming, then we cannot secure homes for people to move out of homeless services.”
Mr Doyle said the solution is for the State to build affordable rental properties. “The critical issue is affordable supply. At the present time developers cannot build affordable housing and we shouldn’t rely on business to meet housing needs, therefore the State must step in. Peter McVerry Trust would urge the Government to instruct and resource Councils to begin building affordable rental accommodation. We have recommended this as a core measure in our submission to the review on Rebuilding Ireland as affordable housing is an area of enormous need.”
“There is a growing number of people who are stuck in a very precarious situation and are vulnerable in an increasingly expensive private market. These are households that earn too much to qualify for traditional social housing, but not enough to buy a home. Unfortunately, that group is growing quickly as the cost or renting and buying a home is rising very fast.”
“The cheapest, most effective way to build affordable rental accommodation is for Councils to use small sites to begin creating affordable rental blocks, purpose built to meet the needs of people who are renting and cannot afford private rates. This would provide an alternative outlet for renters and lessen both the reliance and pressure on the private market.”
