Landlords are selling, to prevent homelessness, it’s time for the state to start buying

The latest monthly council report lists over 2,000 families on the waiting list for a social house and nearly 3,000 on HAP or RAS, where a landlord can evict tenants if they intend to sell the property. In addition to this the report also states

According to the RTB evictions are up nearly 60% in the first 6 months of 2022 compared to 2021. While the eviction ban was in place in 2020 the total number of families in emergency accommodation fell from 61 in April 2020 to a low of 18 in May 2021.

Following the removal of the ban on evictions, that figure has risen to 70 families in homeless hubs, hotels and other emergency accommodation this September, including 129 children and 95 parents.

Ruairí Fahy People Before Profit representative for Limerick City North, has said that the government must use the €5 billion recently transferred to the so called “rainy day fund” in Budget 2023 to commence an emergency public acquisition programme of all rental properties whose tenants are threatened with eviction on the grounds of sale - and more broadly of newly constructed homes and HAPs and RAS properties, to prevent them being purchased by property investors.

“The government needs to understand that the already disastrous housing crisis and spike in homelessness is only going to get exponentially worse this winter unless emergency action is taken. We now have more than 11,000 people homeless.

“They must use the significant sum of €5 billion they just transferred to the rainy day fund to buy rental properties where landlords are exiting the market and evicting people. It is madness to leave billions in a rainy day fund when that money could be used to purchase homes to build up a public housing stock and ensure people keep a roof over their heads.”

“While new measures have been brought in that require landlords to inform the RTB they intend to carry out an eviction most tenants are not aware of this leading to many people in Limerick facing illegal evictions. If the state would step in as a buyer, any attempt by a landlord to skirt around the law will at the very least mean a tenant can stay in their home with the council taking over their tenancy.”

This week People Before Profit will introduce a bill into the Dáil to implement a ban on evictions.

The Bill introduces a ban on evictions for the duration of the current housing emergency (originally declared by Dáil Eireann on 3 October 2018). The ban is for a 12 month period initially but is renewable by the Government at the request of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government if the Minister considers it to be in public interest, having regard to the threat to living standards and risk of poverty presented by the cost of living crisis and housing emergency. It will prevent the termination of residential tenancies for any reason other than damage to the property over and above normal wear and tear, anti-social behaviour or invalidating insurance.

Speaking on the bill, Richard Boyd Barrett TD said: “The housing and homelessness situation has once again reached unprecedented levels where the numbers of people without their own accommodation has reached the highest figure ever. Focus Ireland has today pointed out that this is a result of bad political decisions.

“We have tabled this bill in order to force the government into action and instigate an eviction ban to prevent further people entering homelessness. In 2018 the government declared a housing emergency. It is now incumbent on them to introduce a ban on evictions as this crisis is clearly only getting worse and government measures to date have been totally ineffective in dealing with the crisis.”