Tackling Homelesness and Social Housing

What about all the people who have emigrated who are living thousands of miles away from a single friend or family member? In Ireland you're never more than 2.5 hours away from friends or family. Work your whole life and then have to leave and live in loneliness on the other side of the world. Sit around in your pyjamas for 7 years waiting to be housed and get a nice cosy place with family and friends in the area you grew up. Something seriously wrong with that picture. Ireland is small so relocations won't compare to other countries. People with families integrated more easily anyway when children are part of the school system. Moving an hour or two from your original home is nothing. There is no give and take in this system. I resent paying to keep others living for free when all of my hard working family are now scattered around the world.

Irish solution to an Irish problem...throw money at it, borrowed money as it happens
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0611/622985-new-rent-supplement-plan-to-prevent-homelessness/

Families at risk of losing their privately-rented homes will have rent supplement payments increased and possibly extended for a short period under a new plan to prevent homelessness.
The protocol agreed within the four Dublin local authority areas will allow the Department of Social Protection to use discretion to help families about to face eviction....One of the main parts of the plan is a pledge that extra money can be paid by the State to landlords for up to 13 weeks.
This payment will be made on the recommendation of Threshold to the Department of Social Protection and can be extended by a further 13 weeks if families still face becoming homeless.

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Can see this becoming widespread and running indefinitely...thereby pushing up rents for all. And if you work and can't afford your rent/don't get rent supplement, you'll have to move as you won't be able to compete.

Maybe we should throw money at this issue?
If government build Xnumber of good standard houses each year , a few things happen .

1. Initially;
Heavy up front cost in building them
(offset a bit by giving employment).
2. Medium;
(rents are coming in)
3. Longer -Term;
Means that with enough good standard housing that we do not refall into the expensive mortgage madness.
It would mean that Builders/Developers would be restrained in charging for a new home.
If someone had good council home at say 100 per week , why would they take on a dear mortgage , unless it really suited them.
Having a good supply of social housing has the effect of reducing cost of most private houses.
An example . Standard 3 bed home in Dublin , because there would then be a good supply of Council homes , its value is at say K200.
However today because there is not an ongoing steady supply of houses that house is valued at K300.
So on that extra k100 @ 4.5% over 240 months , homeowner has to find extra 627 each and every month for 20 years .
That 627 is (lost ) to homeowner and is lost to our economy.

That 627 if spent locally would improve VAT, local work etc.
Could become a virtuous circle.
We could scrap most ongoing supplementary payments.
We could give people homes.
We would also kill off our manic preoccupation on houses.

I just cannot see how any ordinary Joe Soap can afford the prices I again hear of in Dublin. Those that are paying these inflated prices end up (owning) one hell of a millstone that will haunt them should things turn sour!

Housing is much too important to be left to Mr Market.
Just a view.

Gerry Canning said:

Housing is much too important to be left to Mr Market.
Just a view.

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NESC shares your view;

http://www.nesc.ie/en/news-events/p...-report-138-social-housing-at-the-crossroads/

The executive summary is definitely worth reading, and includes the following;

In devising responses it is vital that policy is informed by housing economics and international housing research. These show that housing markets differ significantly from the standard conception of a perfectly competitive market and from casual ideas of ‘supply and demand’. Around one-quarter to one-third of the population will not find satisfactory housing through the market alone. Housing research reveals big differences in the way rental systems work, depending on whether ‘profit rental’ or ‘cost rental’ prevails. European countries with more stable, affordable and socially inclusive housing systems generally provide modest support for large-scale provision of secure rental accommodation, mostly by non-profit bodies, in which rents reflect costs, not the maximum that market pressures will
sustain.

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solidasarock said:

I feel really annoyed when I see someone 'waiting for a house' who decides to have a large family and expects the state to provide all. I think the irish culture of 'entitlement' and 'my rights' should be stopped - there should be a cap on what you can claim. Also the idea that you have baby get house is wrong.

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I'm sure many of us would share your concerns, but this is an oversimplification of the problem. Yes, it is wrong that people will have a baby to get a house. But where you have people with young children who have no reasonable hope of affording a house for themselves for the foreseeable future, what do you propose to do? Are you going to leave them on the side of the road?

Here's an interesting perspective on homelessness in Ireland.

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/homelessness-in-ireland-1511064-Jun2014/?utm_source=shortlink

solidasarock said:

I think instead of RAS or any of the other rental allowance schemes, if the government paid a rate for rent lower than the going rate but long term and where they were responsible for the tenants and any household problems and where the money was paid straight into the landlords bank a/c there would be loads of properties for rent to ease the crisis.

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That's exactly how the RAS scheme works, a lower rent than market rate in return for a long term guarantee. It certainly doesn't work in thriving markets in the big cities.

dub_nerd said:

One of the ironies that hasn't been mentioned is the new regulations that came into force last year on pre '63 bedsits. Focus Ireland produced a report warning the government of the possible very negative implications for low-paid tenants and those with disabilities. They commissioned their own study and found 6,000 tenants dependent on such accommodation, three quarters of them in Dublin.

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Hi Dub Nerd

When did they produce the report? If [broken link removed]was it, it was a bit late doing it after the regulations came into effect. They should have campaigned against the regulations when they were first proposed. [broken link removed]

Brendan

For anyone interested in the role of Housing Associations in social housing, have a look at the recently released 2013 Annual Report for HAIL.

[broken link removed]