Release NAMA Housing and act on crisis- Crowe

Dublin South West TD Seán Crowe insists that Local Government Minister Phl Hogan must take urgent steps to release NAMA Housing and  tackle  the mounting housing waiting lists.  

Deputy Crowe said that the extent of the current crisis is  outlined in  the Focus Ireland ‘The Roof Over Our Heads’ report, that used  2011 Census findings. The report estimates  that there are 230,000 vacant homes nationwide, excluding holiday homes, while there are nearly 100,000 people on housing waiting lists and 5,000 people are homeless.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“This timely report released by Focus Ireland  using Central Statistic Office figures, shows in a clear and concise way, that there is no shortage of vacant houses, and that these could and should be used  to end the growing housing crisis in Ireland.

“Ireland now has nearly 100,000 people on Local Authority Housing waiting lists and at least 5,000 people currently homeless. At the same time the   report also highlights  that a big chunk of Irelands housing stock, 12%, are actually vacant and that in Dublin alone, there are 16,321 vacant apartments.

“Many of these properties are in NAMA and are technically owned by Irish taxpayers.

“The Government needs to create the conditions  where many of  these empty houses and apartments  are actually used to provide permanent accomodation for families and individuals.

“Even taking into account that  some of these units may not be suitable for social housing, the sheer scale of empty housing units shows the problem of homelessness is not due to a lack of housing, but is in fact due to a failure by the State to gain access to suitable housing for the people who require a roof over their heads.”

“The artificial housing shortage can be solved by using  the  large stock of empty housing and over night the mounting problem of longer and longer waiting lists could be elminated

“Local Government Minister Phil Hogan and his Cabinet  colleagues need to take  urgent steps to fix this fundamental social problem.

“The most potent message coming from the Focus Ireland Report is  that the failure to end long-term homelessness is not due to any lack of actual housing units but due to this Governments collective inability to tackle and improve access to housing for those most in need in society.”