Money Times - August 14, 2018
Posted by Jill Kerby on August 14 2018 @ 09:00
THIS HOUSING AND HOMELESS CRISIS AFFECTS US ALL
Just up the road are two Victorian terraced houses just like mine, with about 1,700 square feet of space and three or four bedrooms, depending on whether you squeeze someone into the box-room or not. There are two reception rooms, a kitchen of varying size and usually 1-2 bathrooms.
These two terraced houses were originally private homes, then bed-sits, then not very well-run private/public emergency-style bedsits when the absentee landlord came to a vague sort of arrangement with the city housing authorities.
After too many years of having to put up with episodes of anti-social behaviour, noise, general mayhem and on-going rat and refuse problems, the houses were put up for sale and sold to the city of Dublin as emergency accommodation.
Once the people in the white ‘hazmat’ suits (aka hazardous material) got finished with them, the building and renovation teams went in; they now provide safe, suitable, supervised emergency accommodation for mainly homeless families. Most late nights that I walk the dog before we turn in I see taxis arriving with distressed parents and their sleepy children, the youngest clutching teddies; the older children carry their backpacks and pull their small suitcases up the path to the brightly lit entrance.
The Dublin Region Homeless Executive deal with families like this every night.
Last Thursday morning social media with full of pictures of six small children aged 1-11, who were sleeping on plastic chairs at Tallaght Garda Station. (A seventh, ill child was staying with others) They appeared to have slipped desperately through the net.
On the RTE 1 o’clock news, the DRHE spokesperson claimed that this was the only family of 10 in total who had dealt with by their Family Homeless Action Team but ended up without beds. All the others were either found shelter for the night, returned to their home areas (outside Dublin) or failed to make final contact with the action team.
A report in the Irish Times stated that this family of settled Travellers from Tallaght had been referred to the Garda Station by Focus Ireland and that they been homeless and for the past year after their rented house had been repossessed. The young mother told the paper that she had yet another appointment the next day with South Dublin County Council City but wasn’t very hopeful – they kept telling her they don’t “have any homes big enough… no hotel rooms big enough”.
That a family of this size has to wait “another four or five years for a house” isn’t acceptable, but there is more at play than just a shortage of suitable, affordable social housing. Our economy is still coming to terms with a crash that happened eight years ago and a much longer state policy to reduce social housing funding and rely on the private sector to fill practically the entire public and private housing demand.
The government’s most recent policy, undertaken at the behest of our international paymasters, has been to instruct NAMA and the state owned banks to sell off the properties and so called un-performing mortgages it owns to large foreign vulture funds and domestic consortia of investors (who prefer to buying entire apartment buildings, swathes of housing estates). These properties are now rented to the highest bidders. Housing charities say they are unable to compete with the vultures or REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) for these assets.
But still, bricks and mortar remain Ireland’s favourite investment. Fortunes have been made and lost and are being made again, mostly by individual professional landlords and the gombeen ‘stack-em-high’, ‘cash only’ versions who don’t pay their taxes. Even many amateur, ‘this-is-my-pension’ landlords cash in on the misery of working families, modest and low earning workers, and students, especially the tens of thousands of foreign students and immigrants who are viciously exploited by demanding huge rent increases.
Quickly bringing more social housing into the market is a big part of the solution, but so is pursuing the owners of vacant, derelict properties and sites to do rent or sell them or face bigger levies.
Better tax and rent incentives should be offered reluctant amateur landlords to lease their properties under existing schemes to local authorities managers who in return will pay them a steady, fair rent for the agreed term. Illegal overcrowding – where 10-20 people are packed into ordinary private houses/apartments (some sharing double beds) needs to be ended by city authorities, fire and safety authorities and the owner/landlords pursued by flinty eyed investigators from the Revenue Commissioners.
And finally more good, decent, honourable people with a spare room in their homes should be urged to consider joining the tax-free, Rent-a-Room scheme and ask for a reasonable, as opposed to vastly inflated ‘market’ rate, to someone who is desperate for a room (and bed) of their own.
(Letters to jill@jillkerby.ie The TAB Guide to Money Pensions & Tax 2018 is available in all good bookstores. See www.tab.ie for ebook edition.)
ninjaessays legit on May 14 2019 08:02
discover more here on May 18 2019 11:07
home tutor in karachi on Jul 16 2019 16:10
abdullah ibrahim
Ecommerce Sales Process on Feb 11 2020 11:58
JNVST Result 2020 Pondicherry on Feb 14 2020 17:16
se.altoconvertjpgtopdf.com on Feb 28 2020 12:01
videoproduktion dortmund on Mar 18 2020 13:42
videoproduktion dortmund on Mar 18 2020 13:42
Samuel Bricks
192.168.l.l on May 26 2020 06:50
Buy Research Proposal on May 27 2020 07:25
alltechpride.com on May 29 2020 11:12
print a test page online on May 31 2020 11:22
residential cleaning on Jun 01 2020 15:02
Chiller truck on Jun 01 2020 15:07
ISO 9001 Riyadh on Jun 01 2020 15:11
cheap rent a car in karachi without driver on Jun 01 2020 15:16
cars rental rawalpindi on Jun 01 2020 15:24
Assignment Done on Jun 04 2020 05:32
Assignment Writing Service Uk on Jun 04 2020 07:32
Tech Pro Data on Jun 13 2020 07:14
Turbo VPN for PC on Jun 13 2020 07:16
Download SHOWBOX App for PC on Jun 13 2020 07:18
WMI PROVIDER HOST on Jun 13 2020 07:19
Thoptv Apk on Jun 13 2020 07:21
Tech App Mod on Jun 13 2020 07:23
Pak Car Rentals on Jun 24 2020 10:50
https://www.digitekprinting.com/foam-core-posters on Jun 25 2020 09:06
Your Car on Jun 26 2020 12:24
Arenteiro on Jun 30 2020 07:53
pnb parivar on Jun 30 2020 07:54
Movierulz2 on Jun 30 2020 07:55
Movierulz2 on Jun 30 2020 07:55
Techunz on Jun 30 2020 07:57
Dissertation writing services on Jul 11 2020 04:25
Hotstar app download for pc on Jul 11 2020 14:07
DOWNLOAD VIDMATE FOR PC on Jul 11 2020 14:08
genyoutube download on Jul 11 2020 14:10
The Old Guard Andy Coat on Jul 15 2020 05:04
anime fashion game on Jul 15 2020 15:30
Mrs Mitchell Jacqueline on Jul 28 2020 00:30
Adams Adams
Rent Car Islamabad.pk on Aug 12 2020 12:02
rent a car islamabad on Aug 13 2020 08:04
Travel & Tour Masters on Aug 17 2020 08:14
Theo
https://www.cvfolks.co.uk/it-cv/ on Sep 17 2020 06:17
qualitydissertation.co.uk/marketing-dissertation-help on Sep 23 2020 06:08
minecraftfree download pc on Oct 02 2020 17:00
volkswagen lease deals uk on Oct 10 2020 08:25
Skateboard griptape on Oct 10 2020 08:47
php chat system on Oct 12 2020 11:39
Funding Opportunity
Smartwork on Oct 22 2020 14:38
Law essay writing help on Oct 23 2020 19:18
professional Coaching team Australia on Oct 24 2020 07:11
do my assignment on Oct 29 2020 14:28
android browser home on Nov 03 2020 08:50
ikea kitchen cabinets saskatoon on Nov 19 2020 11:50
fitness with dina on Nov 19 2020 16:50
House foundation repair edmonton on Nov 19 2020 17:00
do my homework online on Nov 20 2020 14:18
hmza sheikh on Dec 22 2020 11:55
Shearling Aviator Coat on Dec 29 2020 12:25
Locksmith Near Me Milwaukee on Jan 18 2021 01:34
maternity photographers in maui on Jan 18 2021 01:57
custom closets st petersburg on Jan 18 2021 02:14
roof cleaning lakewood ranch on Jan 18 2021 02:17
bradenton custom homes on Jan 18 2021 02:22
sarasota engagement photographers on Jan 18 2021 02:25
pool repair el dorado hills on Jan 18 2021 02:27
kitchen cabinets gainesville fl on Jan 18 2021 02:31
roof cleaning sarasota on Jan 18 2021 02:32
KW Suncoast Casella Group - The LWR Realtors on Jan 18 2021 02:34
Petoskey Photographers- Andrejka Photography on Jan 18 2021 02:36
Mackinac Island Photography- Andrejka Photography on Jan 18 2021 02:43
Fit and Trim of Sarasota LLC on Jan 18 2021 02:45
New Model Rescreening and Painting on Jan 18 2021 02:46
IV Therapy Sarasota on Jan 18 2021 02:47