Dubliners need more than empty promises on housing crisis – Chambers
Published on: 06 May 2015
Fingal Councillor Jack Chambers has hit out at the Government for yet another PR launch of its social housing strategy, while not one new social housing unit has been built in Dublin.
The Fianna Fáil candidate for Dublin West has said the announcement today of investment in social housing units was already announced last November, and yet absolutely no progress has been made on tackling the out of control waiting lists in Dublin.
Cllr Chambers explained, “The 31,814 Dublin families on social housing waiting lists in Dublin are sick of hearing empty promise after empty promise from this Government. In Fingal alone, there are 6,020 families waiting for a home and that number is rising every single month. Everything that Minister Alan Kelly has promised them today was already promised last year. And yet not a single new social housing unit has been built in all of Dublin.
“In fact, this is the fourth PR launch we have had of the Government’s housing strategy in the past year. But we have yet to see a single new unit become available in Dublin where thousands of families are living in temporary accommodation and are in desperate need of a home. The problem has been allowed to escalate totally out of control because despite all the promises, absolutely no action has been taken. As a result, every single week, more families are left homeless as due to the lack of affordable housing available in Dublin and the exorbitant rents right across this city.
“The latest figures released to Fianna Fáil through Parliamentary Question show the waiting lists for social housing across the four Dublin local authorities are reaching record highs. There are 31,814 social housing units needed in the capital immediately and that number is increasing weekly. Just two months ago, Minister Kelly promised that 1,400 new units would be built across the country by the end of this year. Now that figure has been drastically revised downwards, and there will be little or no new homes this year.
“The reality is that this Government has broken every single promise to people in Dublin who are in desperate need for a home. Now with an election looming, they are panicked into yet another announcement. But even if they finally follow through this time, the 1,700 new units to be built across the country over the next three years will barely make a dent in what’s actually needed in Dublin. What we need is radical action to dramatically increase supply, free up vacant NAMA units across this city and start tackling the unreasonable rent prices that are pricing too many Dubliners out of the market.”