The Government will publish its long-awaited new housing plan this week aimed at tackling the housing crisis. It will be the fourth housing plan published in 12 years, as successive governments have struggled to get to grips with an undersupply in housing that has seen property prices and rent costs soar and an increasing number of homeless people in emergency accommodation.
Here’s what we know so far.
So we’re getting a new housing plan?
That’s right. Minister for Housing James Browne will bring a memo to Cabinet on Wednesday on the Government’s plan, called Delivering Homes, Building Communities. It will be officially launched on Thursday morning by the Minister at a construction site in Dublin city centre alongside Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris and will be published on the department’s website.
[ Rental crisis to intensify as ‘starved of supply’ housing stock dips below 2,000Opens in new window ]
Do we know what’s in the plan?
The new plan aims to deliver 90,000 “starter homes” over the next five years. Overall the Government has pledged the delivery of more than 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030.
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There is to be an additional €2.5 billion in funding for the Land Development Agency, which will have an expanded role under the latest plan for tackling the housing crisis.
The ramping up of the role of the agency includes delivering homes in a wider geographic area and acquiring more private and State land.
What do we know about social and affordable homes?
As many as 12,000 social homes and 15,000 affordable housing units could be delivered per year, on average, under the funding available for the housing plan.
It is understood that the 90,000 “starter homes” in the plan include any home where the State will provide a support to purchase or renovate a property for first-time buyers.
Is there anything aimed at tackling long-term homelessness?
One measure aimed at alleviating long-term homelessness is some €100 million in funding next year for the State to purchase second-hand homes for people to exit emergency accommodation who have been in it the longest.
A “key focus” of this is said to be to increase the supply of one-bedroom and four-bedroom properties to provide more stock to allocate to single adults and large families who are homeless.
[ Housing plan aims to deliver 90,000 ‘starter homes’ over five yearsOpens in new window ]
What else do we know?
The plan is also expected to include much greater use of compulsory purchase orders by local authorities to deal with derelict properties.
In addition, in order to ensure there is no barrier to a household fleeing domestic violence to receiving services, a protocol will be agreed with local authorities to provide that victims of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence – subject to meeting all other social housing eligibility requirements – can transfer previous time spent on a social housing waiting list to another local authority.
It is also understood that the Minister wants to get rid of any no-pets policy in rental accommodation.
Wasn’t this plan meant to be published months ago?
It was. The plan was supposed to be published in July, but the Taoiseach flagged in June that it would probably not happen until September.
The updated National Development Plan, published in July, and the subsequent budget in October, have been cited as the reasons for the delays.
Has there been any reaction from the Opposition about the new housing strategy?
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman, Eoin Ó Broin, said the new plan appears to be “more of the same failed housing policy from before”.
“No increase in social or affordable homes, no increased protection for renters from rip-off rents and evictions, no clear action plan to end long-term homelessness by 2030 and no real support mechanisms for small and medium-sized developers to build good-quality homes for working people to buy,” he said.
The Dublin Mid-West TD added that this was “not the radical reset that the Government’s own Housing Commission recommended last year”.
The issue is likely to come up at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Wednesday and Thursday.
How many people are now homeless in Ireland?
The number of people who are homeless reached another record high in September, surpassing 16,500 for the first time, including more than 5,200 children.
The monthly homeless report from the Department of Housing, published at the end of October, showed there were 16,614 people in emergency accommodation during the week of September 22nd-28th.
These numbers do not include people in domestic violence refuges, those sofa surfing, in international protection accommodation despite having refugees status, in overcrowded housing or sleeping rough.
