"Catastrophic failure" to address housing crisis

People before Profit TD rails against “catastrophic failure” to address housing and homelessness emergency

 

-      Richard Boyd Barrett calls for emergency social housing programme and immediate increase in rent allowance caps

In the Dáil on the 12th March during Questions to the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government and during the Dáil debate on the housing and homelessness situation, Richard Boyd Barrett accused the government of a catastrophic failure to address what he described as an emergency in social housing and homelessness.

Deputy Boyd Barrett called for an emergency response from the government to deal with the crisis, insisting that only a major council house building programme and immediate variation on the rent allowance caps could address the deepening crisis.

Deputy Boyd Barrett also condemned what he described as the handover of the property sector to international property speculators and vulture funds such as Lone Star, Apollo and Kennedy Wilson who are now moving to buy up IBRC and NAMA property portfolios.

Recent announcements by Minister for Housing Jan O’Sullivan that the Government plan to provide extra social housing units were “pathetic” and would barely dent the numbers of people waiting on the council waiting lists or facing homelessness as a result of inability to pay rapidly rising rents in the private rental sector.

Richard Boyd Barrett said,

“How is it that we have the biggest crisis in housing and homelessness in the history of the state after the biggest property boom in the history of the state and it beggars belief that we are now giving property back to speculators instead of housing people in dire need?”

We have statement after statement from Government Ministers saying that no-one would be made homeless as a result of government policy yet the stark facts tell a different story.

 The Government need to put their hands up, admit they got it wrong and start addressing the issue by raising the rent caps and building more social housing or this catastrophic failure to deal with a growing emergency will have fatal consequences”

It is extraordinary that after the experience of an economic crash caused by speculators being allowed to control the housing market the government is now going to sell potential homes for the 97,000 on council waiting lists to vulture funds such as Lonestar”