Latest news with #HousingCommission
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
More imagination needed to solve the housing emergency
When the Government declared covid-19 an emergency, bureaucracy was set aside and targets were achieved in recognition of the common good. No matter how well-intentioned the Government is about solving the housing crisis, it will require a collaborative approach as effective as addressing the pandemic. While the recently revised National Development Plan (NDP) announcement of enhanced infrastructure investment, including over €30bn of investment in housing, is to be welcomed, a more imaginative approach is needed. At this stage, given rising homeless figures at over 14,000 - including 5,000 children - the need for housing is an emergency and should be declared as such. It's now time for all stakeholders to put their shoulder to the wheel including senior civil servants, local authorities, communities and citizens. There seems to be a sense in Government that only 35,000 new homes will be built per year, even though it has increased annual housing targets to 83,000. The pent-up demand of around 151,000 units in the National Planning Framework (NPF) is underestimated in comparison to those projected by the Housing Commission with a shortfall of up to 250,000 units identified. The NDP's revised aspiration of 300,000 new homes over the next five years will only be achieved if radical steps are taken. It is important to deal with the core issues impacting further supply of housing, in particular a lack of available zoned land for construction. Up until 2014 there was always a supply of land where builders could buy and sell zoned land with planning. Since the core strategy of finding sufficient zoned and serviced land to cater for future housing demand was implemented in 2014 and incorporated into the NPF in 2017/18, zoned land has been artificially constrained to the point that this market is non-functioning. Nature abhors a vacuum with almost the entirety of available zoned land purchased by investment funds and the Land Development Agency (LDA). This has resulted in small and medium-sized indigenous builders being forced to reduce output and increasingly going out of business due to an inability to acquire adequate sites. This is a key contributing factor as to why national target outputs are not being reached. To increase output as envisaged, there needs to be a functioning land market as existed pre-2014 where agents had a supply of this type of land and builders could purchase. Construction work at Waterfall Heights, by Bridgewater, at Waterfall Road, Bishopstown, Cork. Ireland now has the second highest proportionate housing expenditure in the EU. Picture Larry Cummins There is also the innate loyalty and stickability of the Irish domestic builder: the same cannot be said of developments funded by foreign capital. Having excess amounts of land zoned doesn't translate to bad planning – allowing badly planned development on zoned land causes bad outcomes. In recent years, the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) has overseen the dezoning of land, much of which was serviced, based on a flawed NPF reliant on out-of-date ESRI model of future demand. The OPR's role must transition to one of 'implementor' - facilitating and overseeing domestic Irish construction companies throughout the country to build housing estates of 50-150 homes creating employment throughout various regions and rural Ireland. Indeed, in this capacity they can also oversee the necessary construction of large apartment complexes in cities and large towns, while also facilitating high-density compact housing estates on the periphery of cities and satellite towns. But while kickstarting smaller apartments is necessary to meet housing targets, encouraging a proportionate number of larger homes should also be considered to accommodate families. No further dezoning should be permitted without proven and solid grounds. What chance do large, medium or small developers have in securing funding for purchasing and building on serviced zoned land when the local authority, at the instruction of the Planning Regulator, can withdraw that zoning without notice. Funders or developers cannot operate in such a business environment. Lands dezoned in recent years should be rezoned by each relevant local authority. This, coupled with prioritised water and electricity supply schemes, would increase availability to build several thousand houses in the short term. Many housing developments are subject to Local Area Plans (LAPs) several of which have expired and therefore cannot be relied upon. Preparing masterplans is expensive and time consuming leading to planning application submission delays up to 12 to 18 months. This process needs to be streamlined and prioritised and LAPs need to be fast-tracked. Apprentice training schemes mentioned in the revised NDP are of course welcome, however, in the immediate term availability of trained personnel is not the problem. Recent lay-offs by indigenous companies points to this with others stating they are operating well below capacity. Reduced local authority levies and other costs within the State's control would be more effective, particularly in the short-term. The cost of building is also having a damaging impact on further vitally-needed supply. Dublin is the second most expensive city in Europe to build apartments with the cost of delivering a two-bed apartment around €600k in Dublin, and €460k to deliver a three-bed house. Ireland now has the second highest proportionate housing expenditure in the EU. Several Government initiatives have been introduced to address these costs including the Croi Conaithe Cities Scheme, First Home Equity Scheme, and the Help to Buy scheme among others. However, these demand-side subsidies have not had the desired impact and therefore need to be enhanced including a recalibration of the caps set for the First Home Equity and the Help to Buy Schemes, respectively, and allowing the payment support of the Croi Conaithe Cities scheme to be made upfront. Garry Keegan: 'The National Development Plan's revised aspiration of 300,000 new homes over the next five years will only be achieved if radical steps are taken.' The recently announced reduction in the minimum size requirement for apartments and other deregulations to increase the number of allowable units per core proves that the Custom House is listening to expert and experienced advice from the construction industry. More needs to be done to reduce the gap between construction costs and what can be achieved in the open market. By adopting the same collective approach as has been done in the recent past to address the most pertinent issue facing the State, only then will this current crisis be averted. Dr Garry Keegan is a former Dublin City councillor, former ESB board member and recently published Infrastructure Projects and Local Communities . He has worked on infrastructure and housing development projects over the past three decades.
Chicago Tribune
15-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Jan Kay, stalwart west suburban volunteer, dies
Jan Kay led Wheaton's League of Women Voters chapter and focused other volunteer efforts on helping the homeless and disadvantaged, serving for more than two decades on the western suburb's Housing Commission and Commission on Aging. 'Jan had a gift for reaching out to others, especially those who were disenfranchised or on the margins, to make sure they knew she saw them and could be a friend (and) an ally,' said Kim Hesterman Reed, a friend and member of the League of Women Voters of Glen Ellyn. Kay, 89, died of natural causes on June 10 while in hospice care at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, said her son, Bob. She had been a longtime Wheaton resident. Born Janice Lucille Cave in Waverly, Iowa, Kay received a bachelor's degree in music from Wartburg College in Waverly in 1959. While at Wartburg, Kay met her future husband, Thomas O. Kay. The couple married in 1959 and moved to Wheaton, where her husband taught history at Wheaton College for 45 years. He died in 2022. For many years, Kay taught piano in her home, and she also played the piano at her church and accompanied the chorus at Hawthorne Elementary School in Wheaton, where her children went, her son said. Kay also served on Wheaton's United Way board. In Kay's later years, she became deeply involved in her community. She was president of Wheaton's League of Women Voters chapter from 1993 until 1995 and again from 2005 until 2009 and earlier, she had served as the group's action chair. And she served on the board of the city's Housing Commission — now known as its Commission on Aging — from 1997 until her death. 'She was a very strong advocate for our community,' Wheaton Mayor Philip Suess said in June at a City Council meeting. 'You think of her community involvement over the years that she's lived in Wheaton, she and her husband, Tom, were great advocates for the community, and (they were involved) … through their church, through Wheaton College and through the League of Women Voters.' Colleagues recalled Kay's interest in people on welfare and those experiencing homelessness. Starting in the 1990s, Kay was involved with a Chicago-based women's group called Creating Bridges, which held simulations aimed at helping middle-class suburbanites better understand the frustrating, entangling webs of welfare agencies. 'I've gotten to know women who have had to be in the (welfare) system for some time,' Kay told the Tribune in 1991. 'I hope I'm a help to them … as a friend.' That same commitment to assisting those in need spurred Kay to become part of the Continuum of Care, a DuPage County-led agency that is a planning body that works with a variety of agencies to provide strategies at ending and preventing homelessness. Kay served on the DuPage Continuum of Cares Gaps and Needs Committee for more than three decades until her death. The Gaps and Needs Committee identifies the gaps in services and the needs of the Continuum of Care in serving vulnerable populations, including analyzing local data and providing evidence to further address and support such needs within the community. 'What made Jan Kay so special is that she was such a powerful advocate and such a compassionate champion for so many people and so many causes,' said Lisa Snipes, the DuPage Continuum of Care's continuum planner. 'She was a people person, and the work she did with the Continuum of Care was centered around individuals experiencing homelessness.' Snipes recalled that whenever Kay would encounter someone who was homeless, 'she would have so much compassion and kindness for people who were vulnerable and who found themselves in unfortunate circumstances that she would engage them in conversation and buy them a sandwich and sit down and listen. That was so comforting. She practiced what she preached.' Kay also was very active in the DuPage Federation on Human Services Reform, a nonprofit collaboration of government and community groups that works to marshal local resources to address human services needs. With her knowledge of elected officials and legislation through her work with the League of Women Voters, Kay led a committee for advocacy at the DuPage Federation. She had been involved with that group since its inception in 1995. 'She was generous with her time to help the federation do its best job for advocacy,' said David Roth, the group's executive director. 'Jan excelled at supporting people, and she is one who fervently believed that if we worked together, we can get this done. And she did it with a graciousness and a passion that was unsurpassed.' Early this year, Wheaton honored Kay with the city's volunteer Excellence Award. In addition to her son, Kay is survived by a daughter, Catherine; another son, John; two sisters, Virginia Ruzicka and Rebecca Radel; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Services were held.
Extra.ie
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Extra.ie
HAP scheme is 'driving new entries into homelessness'
A senior Housing Commission official has called for the Government to double the social housing supply and quit relying on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Michelle Norris said 20% of households should be accommodated in social or cost-rental housing. 'That would be a doubling of supply and would provide more than enough social housing to accommodate all the people currently on HAP,' she said yesterday at a Focus Ireland conference with a focus on reforming HAP. A senior Housing Commission official has called for the Government to double the social housing supply and quit relying on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Pic: Getty Images There are 70,000 households reliant on HAP. Ms Norris said the assistance scheme should 'be used primarily to provide short-to medium-term support for households that don't have a long-term housing need'. Conor Roe of homelessness charity Focus Ireland told of a man on disability allowances who was seeking higher HAP payments to help with arrears. The man contacted Focus Ireland after being told that he would have to be homeless for his HAP to be increased. There are approximately 70,000 households that rely on HAP. Pic: Shutterstock Mr Roe described the man as yet another person who 'is going to have to become homeless to get themselves to higher rates, to then get themselves out of homelessness'. He said the scheme is 'driving new entries into homelessness'.
Irish Daily Mirror
21-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
New RPZ rules mean you'll soon be paying even more rent. That's the whole point
It's amazing how the Government can oversee a decade-long housing crisis and still pretend they want to solve it. They engineered it, created it and take active steps to ensure it keeps on going. Look at the rush to restrict rent caps, the only measure preventing total housing chaos. Yet this reckless intervention is being framed as a national rollout of protections for renters - the exact opposite of what it is. They're calling it a 'reform' of the Rent Pressure Zones, which were reluctantly brought in in 2016 and only after runaway rents had reached a peak. Limiting rents to a 2 per cent annual hike was absolutely necessary to stop the greed. But these changes to RPZs will leave it toothless, and pile more pain on renters. The express purpose is to make rents higher so the market is "attractive" to investors. The only thing investors find attractive is money. Now, tenants are trapped into higher rents on both sides - forced to pay more if they stay long-term in the same place, or, if they move to a new place. Do I stay or do I go? Either way, you'll be stiffed for the highest rent possible. Landlords will be able to 'reset' rents after six years for sitting tenants; and they can reset them too, for new tenants. Government is determined to make the market more profitable for the investors they bend over for. This is being done on the backs of renters already stuck paying extortionate average rents of €2,000 nationally and €2,500 in cities. The reform - rushed into legislation on Friday - will ensure more rent hikes, sparking ever-upwards market rates. Sinn Fein's Eoin O Broin described it as "the deathknell of rent pressure zones as we know them'. The reason it's being done is to drive rents up. Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Housing Minister James Browne have stated this. They want an Ireland of higher rents. Martin said it was about enabling a 'stable environment in which to invest'. James Browne said: "Rents may go up." May? Will. If they don't go up, the investors won't invest. Our leaders claim it will be more costly in the short term, but lead to more supply in the long term. What use is that to tenants? That's punishing renters to pander to investors. It's also an empty pledge, as such investors deliver small volumes of very expensive rental in affluent parts of Dublin and Cork - helping just the chosen few. It goes against the Housing Commission advice, which recommended RPZs stay in place while an alternative system of rent controls is formulated. The Central Bank's Robert Kelly said the changes will 'be painful for renters'. He said: 'It's likely to be positive in terms of the level of supply, as they have rent resets within them. But the pain felt by households is not even, due to the housing crisis'. Good news for the investor - bad news for the renter. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week Mike Allen from Focus Ireland called it 'a solution that says 'we can deliver more housing, but you won't be able to afford to live in it'. That's not a solution.' I was at the Raise the Roof rally outside the Dail on Tuesday. I've been attending such protests since 2015, usually with my son Luc and his friend Filip. I've seen them grow from little boys into young men, over the time. They're now taller than Eoin O Broin, who they first met at these protests when they were six or seven. And yet it is still going on. Childhoods continue to be lost to it. This latest move makes it clear the crisis is actually profit-driven policy. At the rally, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said they had gathered at the rally to call out the Government's "spoof and outright lies". TD Paul Murphy correctly called it a 'manufactured crisis' that 'transfers wealth from workers to a tiny few at the top, the corporate landlords and developers'. Deputy Rory Hearne said it is 'clearly government policy to have a permanent housing crisis'. For a government to do that to its own people is, in my view, tantamount to treason.
Irish Independent
15-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Taoiseach vows new rent controls will be introduced by July
Rent controls are being extended to the fifth of tenancies not already covered by Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) regulations. Under the new regulations, RPZs will change to a nationwide rent control system. RPZs until now extended only to specific areas of high demand where rent increases were capped at a maximum of 2pc per annum. Introduced to tackle spiralling rents amid Ireland's housing shortage, RPZs had been due to expire by December 31. Now, the system will be extended and will effectively operate on a nationwide basis. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the measures had attracted widespread support. "First of all, the measures have been broadly welcomed by people who are engaged in the housing sector and the housing industry," he said. "I think the opposition didn't expect the measures we brought in in terms of the protections (offered)." "This measure will come before the Government – it will have to go through the legislature – that depends on the Oireachtas." "But the aim is to have it done before the summer recess and that's just one aspect of what was an important series of reforms which were necessary." Mr Martin said the measures were being implemented to address issues within the accommodation sector. Under the changes, a further 11 counties will benefit from the controls offered by the RPZ regime. "They had to happen because of the fact we were looking at the expiry deadline for the existing framework at the end of the year and which the Housing Commission and then the Housing Agency – following that the Housing Commission did a review on all of this – both recommended change." "So steady as it goes," he said. Tánaiste Simon Harris said the Coalition was committed to taking "big and bold decisions" on housing in a bid to increase supply and control costs for families. Housing Minister James Browne will introduce the legislation this week. Mr Harris said that while it was an interim bill, it could be called emergency legislation. The Tánaiste said the measures underlined just how seriously the Government regarded the issue of housing. The Economic and Social Research Institute warned that between 35,000 and 53,000 new homes are now required on an annual basis to cope with Ireland's accommodation need. The rent controls measures are being introduced amid fears Ireland will miss its house construction target in 2025.
