Council urged to act now on the housing crisis

Donegal County Council has been urged to establish a timeframe to implement proposals from a new homelessness plan and set up homeless clinics, acquire buildings to provide emergency overnight stays and fully resource a special unit within the council to deal with people facing homelessness when the ban on evictions ends this coming, Friday, March 31.

Earlier this month the Government decided not to extend the eviction ban that has been in place since October 30t covering “the winter emergency period” beyond its planned expiry on March 31.

Up to this, the ban meant that if you were renting private rental accommodation from a landlord, you could not be evicted during that period, even if issued with a valid notice of termination.

The eviction ban was introduced in response to acute rental accommodation shortages and the expected increase in homelessness over the winter.

These and many other issues were highlighted as councillors discussed the 46-page North West Regional Homeless Action Plan 2023-2028 at their meeting in Lifford on Monday.

In a presentation to the meeting the chairman of the Donegal Homeless Action Team, Eamonn Browne, said the plan had four key strategic aims: prevent homelessness – early intervention to people at risk of homelessness; protect those experiencing homelessness through emergency accommodation and targeted support; identify pathways to long-term housing solutions and ensure proper governance, financial oversight and funding to deliver homeless services.

The plan outlined how in the period 2016–2022, the number of adults in emergency accommodation has increased by 93%, and there had been an increase of 10.39% between 2017-2022 in the number of applicants on Social Housing Support lists in Donegal while the age of homeless adults in the region showed those in the 65 years and over category was the highest while males in the homeless category were higher than females in Donegal but a pattern was emerging showing an increasing number of females in homeless services.

The plan also showed that there were only 28 Private Emergency Accommodation units in Donegal and locals made up the bulk of people looking for places. Figures were not recorded for Donegal but evidence indicates that there has been a sharp increase in the number of housing applicants who state they are living with family/friends and couch surfing. Both categories are indicators of “hidden homelessness”.

In terms of homelessness and domestic violence numbers recorded from 2018 to August last year show 124 adults and 164 children had been accommodated. He added there were also figures to show people were staying longer in emergency accommodation thus rendering short-term hostel accommodation not as effective as it should be.

Mr Browne said some of the findings in the plan would not be a surprise to the councillors including the shortage of rented accommodation, the sharp increase in rents and the increase in notices of terminations which had been brought to the fore by the ending of the eviction ban. He said the county's housing waiting list which was around 2,740 which was made up of single people and an increasing number of families who never thought they would experience homelessness.

He said the average rent for accommodation in Donegal was €881 but from experience, he knew this was now much higher, particularly in places like Letterkenny.

Key Actions

Councillors heard the key actions and recommendations which included more emergency accommodation, the need to examine the HAP scheme to see if it was keeping up with the rates, rent pressure zones and if Donegal needed to be included in it, more tenancy support services to prevent homelessness by perhaps creating homeless clinics so at-risk people could get advice early on how to deal with their situation, homeless assessments, targeted supports with bodies like the HSE, protection and family supports, trauma-informed training, social housing units, funding models for AHB delivery, extending the Housing First Programme, provision of direct emergency accommodation outside the private sector and working with mental health bodies to help those affected to cope. 

"I think this plan will give us more structure and move us into a more proactive space rather than reactive on some of the streams," he said.

Cllr Gerry McMonagle said unless the plan was properly resourced it was only going to sit on a shelf and gather dust like many other reports. He said with the increase in the numbers facing eviction notices in the coming months as well as the significant number of people who were currently homeless, it was imperative the council made a strong commitment to resource the plan.

He added the idea of homeless clinics was good as it help engage with those who needed it, help direct them to proper support and identify pathways for them to get out of homelessness.

Cllr McMonagle stressed this could not be put on the council's existing housing staff and they needed to resource a dedicated unit to deal with this.

He also highlighted the lack of emergency accommodation and suggested they acquire buildings to provide emergency overnight stays.

"Obviously we need more houses built in the public and private sectors and resourcing a purpose-built emergency accommodation unit," he said.

He urged the council to implement a timeframe for actions suggested in the plan.

Cllr Albert Doherty said he felt it was time for the council to wear sackcloth and ashes in relation to homelessness. He pointed out that the current homelessness action plan expired in 2018 and the Sligo lead on this had not served Donegal well or "not a top of the class performance".

Cllr Martin Harley said he saw a major part of the problem was banks not providing cash to builders and housing agencies being slow to take up sites with contractors that were available.

"There are 1,000s of sites out there but some of the builders are getting funding from agencies at ten per cent which is crazy money when you add that on top of the cost of building a house. We should be asking the Government to give the money to the builders. We need to start building houses at pre-2009 levels, it's the only way to tackle this issue," he said.

He added the Government are telling councils to buy houses and he wanted to know how many were bought in Donegal in 2023 as there were plenty out there.

Capitalist Ideology

Cllr Micheal Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig said the housing crisis was a product of the Government's capitalist ideology and only benefitted the landlord class. He said the eviction ban needed to be kept in place as scores of families were going to be homeless if implemented. He added he reluctantly believed enforced emigration was acting like a safety valve created by the lack of houses.

He urged the council to examine the possibility of using seven empty houses in the Annagry area as emergency accommodation.

Cllr Michael McClafferty said they had to examine what was available in their own housing estates and look at the possibility of converting unused industrial estates into accommodation units. He also criticised the fact that people could not get planning to build their own homes along the N56 road. It would help ease the housing problem, he claimed.

Cllr Patrick McGowan urged them to formulate a specific plan for emergency accommodation and a sense of urgency in dealing with situations that were holding up potential developments. he added he felt the department was interfering far too much with their plans to deliver houses.

"They are even dictating what kind of handles should go on doors," he said.

Cllr Michael McMahon said he often found it hard to find out where he or families could go for information and help while Cllr Barry Sweeny said they needed a plan that worked for tenants and landlords and described a current eviction in his area as "shocking" and "inhumane".

Cllr Frank McBrearty Jnr said he felt this report did not address the true extent of the problems of social housing or those coming down the road. He accused the council executive of not providing councillors with the correct details for years. He claimed the executive had still not given councillors the results from tests on eight houses in St Johnston. He also claimed the department had barred the council from buying single-acquisition houses.

Cllr Niamh Kennedy suggested they should look at the possibility of having a hostel or B&B in each municipal district to support those affected by homelessness. She also queried whether the council's new vacant homes officer had been appointed yet.

The council's director of housing, Patsy Lafferty said the benefit of having a strategy was it was generally followed by funding and resources and the council was committed to seeking those resources for Donegal to help address the challenges that had been outlined.

He added the council was actively looking to buy houses and was keen to engage with vendors at present. He also pointed out there were at the final stage of the appointment of the vacant homes officer and this should be finalised this or next week.

The decision to approve the plan was proposed by Cllr Donal Coyle and seconded by Cllr Paul Canning and passed.