Social and affordable housing - another right mess
With estimates of 250,000 people waiting for housing, the Government has failed drastically to meet even its own targets. By Vincent Browne
The Government is failing to meet even its own targets on social and affordable housing and the actual number of households in need of housing may be more than double the official figure.
Noel Ahern, Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, said he was "delighted" with the local authority housing completion figure of 5,100 units for 2005 but with over 44,000 households on the local authority waiting lists (approximating to the number of households in Cork city) the 2005 figure makes only a slight dent in the requirement.
The National Economic and Social Council has recommended that the Government build 10,000 units of social housing per annum until 2012. Noel Ahern stated on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on 19 April the Government was no where near this target, and that he couldn't envisage anything other than an incremental increase in housing output. He also acknowledged the Government had not met the housing targets it set itself previously in the National Development Plan.
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 recent survey on housing.
In a TASC report published recently 'Out of Reach: Inequalities in the Irish Housing System', by PJ Drury and Michael Punch, it is claimed claim that in addition to the figure published by the Department of the Environment and Local Government on the numbers on local authority waiting lists (43,000 approximately), the total 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".
TASC estimate that a total of 106,000 households are in need of appropriate housing, or some 250,000 people. And, they say, "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.
An independent evaluation of the 1988 Housing Act "Settlement First" published last year highlights that:
• Of all those officially counted as homeless in 2002, only 10% were housed by local authorities. Single people account for 68% of the current homeless list, but only 43% of allocations.
• In 2003, 16% of all local authority allocations in the areas surveyed went to people who were homeless. This represents 326 housing units. However, half of these were in the Dublin City Council area.
• Most local authorities believe that their homeless count is not an accurate reflection of the extent of need. Being 'counted' as homeless does not guarantee an actual housing needs assessment. This situation, together with the lack of data recorded by local authorities, means that it is not possible to fully assess what housing has been allocated to people who are homeless.
Noeleen Hartigan, National Campaigns Manager of Simon Communities of Ireland, contributed to this article