Dublin City Council’s decision to hike rents for social housing tenants will increase poverty and homelessness, People Before Profit has predicted.
Last night, the city’s annual budget was passed by a razor thin margin, with 31 Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and Green councillors voting in favour.
30 Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and independent councillors voted against, citing the rent increases as the reason for their opposition.
On The Pat Kenny Show, Fianna Fáil’s Daryl Barron defended the decision to increase social housing rents, noting that while wealthy tenants will see their rent hiked by as much as 30%, most will see much smaller rises.
“What we’ve done is protect the lower earners,” he said.
“For example, single occupancy; Ms Murphy is on €244 a week, she will pay an extra €2.22 a week.
“A single mother with two kids, Ms White; she’s on €344 per week - an extra €1.22 per week.
“So, I think we’ve tried to protect lower income earners.”
Housing in Dublin. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie.Cllr Barron added that investment in the city’s housing stock is “imperative” and that the rent increases will raise an extra €35 million of revenue.
“We see right across the city, dereliction, cleanliness issues, there’s so many issues within housing itself,” he said.
People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy disagreed and warned that “the majority of people will see significant increases”.
“It’s not just local authority tenants we’re talking about here, we’re talking about 10,000 HAP tenants who will get absolutely no benefit for these increases,” he said.
“There’s no maintenance service provided to them.
“If you look at HAP tenants; 58% of people in receipt of HAP payments are at risk of poverty, according to the CSO, after they pay their rent.
“So, we’re putting more of a burden on these people at a time when grocery bills are soaring, at a time when energy costs are soaring. It’s the straw that could break the camels’ back.”
A woman walks past the window of an estate agent. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie.In September, there were a record 16,614 people living in emergency accommodation in the Republic - including 5,238.
Cllr Reddy predicted that last night’s budget will only increase the figures further.
“This will lead to homelessness and poverty,” he argued.
“If you take the cherrypicked cases that Daryl mentioned, maybe there’s a modest increase.
“But for families with adult children living at home because of the housing crisis, because housing is so unaffordable and inaccessible, because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed to build, they’re going to see significant increases.
“They’re going to see increases of subsidiary earners now paying up to a maximum of €40 per head in each household.”
Main image: A tent along the banks of the Liffey. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie
