“We have an acute homelessness crisis where people can’t even get into emergency accommodation” — Ruairí Fahy
"In Limerick, we have families who are split up and children bounced between different houses not because a relationship has ended but because they can’t find anywhere to live together"
The most recent “Locked Out” report from Simon Community has shown that no homes were available under HAP limits in Limerick in March. The report also shows that Limerick City Centre has seen a reduction in the total number of homes available to rent in March compared to December last.
“In Limerick, we have families who are split up and children bounced between different houses not because a relationship has ended but because they can’t find anywhere to live together. We have an acute homelessness crisis where people can’t even get into emergency accommodation. We’ve got people living in homes that are falling down where landlords are still receiving eye watering rents but refusing to do even the most basic maintenance.
“I’ve fought alongside tenants around the county to stop illegal evictions, enforce rent pressure zones and ensure maintenance is carried out but that they need housing activists to get involved to make sure the laws are followed highlights a major flaw in how landlords are regulated but with so many landlords in government is it a surprise they let their own ilk act as a law unto themselves?”
In response to comments from Cllr Conor Sheehan that the “the housing crisis is the greatest civil rights issue of our generation” and Labour’s plan to deliver 50,000 homes and create a state construction company, Mr. Fahy said, “It’s rich to see Labour candidates present themselves as the ones who can solve the housing crisis when they had a major role in manufacturing this crisis. 10 years ago, while Jan O’Sullivan was minister for Housing, only 1 local authority house was built in Limerick in 4 years.
“Labour laid the groundwork for the privatised model that is allowing developers and landlords to set whatever price they want leaving people spending over half their wages on rent or putting every penny aside in the fleeting hope they can afford a deposit.
“Whenever they talk about housing they ignore the time where they were in government and created HAP that has driven up rent costs and when they facilitated the government sell off of large tracts of land that could have been used to massively build out public housing and stem the flow of tradespeople emigrating.
“People haven’t forgotten the brutal austerity that was forced on them by Labour. And let us not forget Pat Rabbitte saying ‘isn’t that what you do during an election?’ in response to all of their broken promises.
“It’s great to see the Labour party copying the headlines from People Before Profit’s housing policy but they’ve shown time and time again that their promises will be dropped in exchange for ministerial cars and plush pensions.
“To tackle the homelessness crisis, we need to ensure 100% public housing is built on public land. We need to expand the income limits for social housing and open it up to everyone linking rents to incomes rather than determine affordability based on the profit demands of private developers.”
