Housing crisis worse than offical figures

A TASC publication suggests the number of people in Ireland in need of housing may be a quarter of a million

The number of households in need of housing at present may be more than double that stated by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, according to a new survey on housing.

In a statement issued on 9 December, the Department stated there were a total of just 43,684 households in need of local authority housing as of 31 March 2005, as compared with a figure of 48,413 in 2002 (a decrease of 9.8 per cent). However, according to two academics in Trinity College Dublin, the housing requirement may actually be around 106,000.

This is claimed in a new book, "Out of Reach: Inequalities in the Irish Housing System", by PJ Drury and Michael Punch, just published by the think tank for action on social change (TASC). They claim that the housing requirement figure should include 14,000 households (or 41,000 persons) for whom their existing homes are regarded as "unaffordable", by which they mean households who have to pay more than 35 per cent of net income on mortgage payments.

Added to that figure are the number of low-income households receiving rent supplement in the private rented sector – estimated at between 50,000 and 60,000 at any one time. Some of these, around 14,500, are on the local authority waiting lists, but the remaining 43,500 they claimed "can arguably be classified as being in housing need since rent supplement cannot realistically represent a long-term housing solution for them".

Their estimate is a total of 106,000 households in need of appropriate housing, or some 250,000 people. And, they point out, "this calculation does not... take into account all elements or categories such as homeless persons, refugees or those with disabilities who may be inappropriately housed or have no home at all, but are not yet officially counted".

They go on to point out that the total gain in the stock of local authority housing in the period 1994-2004 was just 25,444, although 34,606 houses were constructed during the period and a further 8,647 were acquired. The deficit is accounted for by the sale of 17,809 local authority houses.

They write: "In the light of the significant housing need… it would be difficult to justify a continuation of the sales of local authority housing... A continuation of the sales scheme will result in the further residualisaiton of public housing, whereby only the very few low-income or unemployed households will be in public rental".

The book records that, in the period 1994-2004, the average price of new homes in the State rose from €72,732 to €249,191. In the Dublin region in the same period the average price of new homes rose from €81,993 to €322,628. They note: "Overall new house prices have risen over four times faster than house building costs and seven times faster than the consumer price index since 1994."

The reasons for this they state are: "Population growth, higher employment, a lack of alternatives to house purchase, relaxed lending practices by the banks and building and new monopolistic windfall profits by landowners and property developers".

They further note:

• While local authorities and other not-for-profit organisations built 33 per cent of all residences in 1975, this figure had plummeted to seven per cent by 2004, in spite of the growing need for public housing, exacerbated by soaring house prices;

• Just fewer than seven per cent of households are now housed by local authorities;

• As the need for social housing steadily grows, local authorities continue to sell off their housing stock at knock-down prices. The result is a modest net gain of only 2,300 units per annum over the last decade;

• Over 5,000 were classified as homeless in 2002;

• Land is a critical resource required for housing. Yet a relatively small group of developers control a high proportion of suitable land for housing, especially in the Dublin region, which allowed for windfall profits and a near-monopoly in the entire area of housing sales and building land".

VINCENT BROWNE