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WITH JUST WEEKS from the deadline, concerns have been raised that the issue of homeless families staying in hotels won’t be solved by July.
Housing Minister Simon Coveney committed last year that private hotels to house homeless families would only be used in limited circumstances by the middle of this year.
In the Rebuilding Ireland Housing Action Plan, the Government committed that emergency hotel and B&B type accommodation for families would only be used “in limited circumstances”.
Despite opposition parties and homelessness charities questioning whether this would be possible, since then Minister Coveney has repeated the promise on numerous occasions.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie in March on whether he thought the goal of no longer using hotels to house families (except in very limited circumstances) could be met by July, Coveney said:
I think so, I think so. I mean it’s putting a lot of pressure on people but I think so.
However, with two weeks to go until Coveney’s self-imposed deadline, many doubts have been raised if it can be reached.
Homeless families
Since the launch of last year’s Housing Action Plan, homelessness in Dublin (and the rest of Ireland) has continued to get worse.
Latest figures for Dublin show that there were 1091 homeless families in Dublin in the final week in April. On the night of 30 April there were 695 families staying in hotels and B&Bs.
Initially meant as an emergency short-term measure, hotel use for homeless families skyrocketed over the past three years as homelessness got worse. Families – sometimes with very young children – ended up staying many months in hotels.
Hotel accommodation is highly unsuitable – with many families not being afforded any proper cooking or cleaning facilities. Children having to sleep three to a bed, anti-social behaviour, damp and mould, bed bugs and mice are all common complaints raised.
Between 60 and 70 additional families become homeless each month in Dublin.
While the number is slightly down on March (when it reached a peak of 871 families), in general things have continued to get worse since last July.
In last year’s plan, the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and new units of rapid-build modular housing were put forward as the way in which the goal of ending hotel use would be achieved.
The Housing Assistance Payment is paid to landlords by local councils on behalf of tenants. Homeless families are given higher caps of rent that can be paid.
1,500 units of rapid-build housing were to be delivered to help families in need. However, planning and construction delays have meant that many of these units won’t be ready by July.
Since the beginning of this year, new family hub accommodation has also been put forward as a means of getting families out of hotels.
This group accommodation provides beds and facilities for families which are more suitable than hotels.
The hubs have cooking and washing facilities as well as onsite supports. They are run mainly by charities. In some cases the units will be old hotels, refitted with proper facilities and amenities.
However, the hubs have come under strong criticism from opposition politicians and activists, with many saying they are a temporary fix rather than a permanent solution.
In May, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) – which manages homeless services across the Dublin region - said that a total of nine premises had been identified as suitable for supported temporary accommodation for families. In total, these hubs will provide accommodation for about 380 homeless families.
A spokesperson for the Housing Department TheJournal.ie that a total of 16 of these facilities will be completed and opened “in the coming weeks”.
The spokesperson said that funding of €25 million had been made available for this purpose.
So will the goal be met?
The DRHE and Housing Department wouldn’t be drawn on whether the July deadline could be met, however both acknowledged that it would be difficult.
A spokesperson for the DRHE said:
“The Dublin Region Homeless Executive are working to meet the deadline to move families out of commercial hotels and into more suitable family accommodation.”
A spokesperson for the Housing Department said that the Government remained “fully committed” to the objective.
“We must be ambitious in addressing this social issue and while it is acknowledged that it is a challenging objective, given the continuing numbers of those presenting as homeless, progress is being made,” the spokesperson said.
They said that it could be expected that in the coming weeks there would be “a very significant reduction” in the number of families in hotels.
Sinn Féin Dublin West TD and housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin yesterday criticised Coveney, saying that it looked likely that the deadline would not be met.
“Just over two weeks out from this deadline and we still do not know where and when the 695 families currently living in hotel rooms are going to be housed,” said Ó Broin.
Instead of investing more money in finding a permanent solution to the growing problem of family homelessness by turning around vacant homes, the Minister is now scrambling to identify any building that could be used as a family hub.
Ambitious
Despite the deadline looming and significant numbers of families still in hotel, Coveney himself has refused to budge on the deadline.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie during his campaign to become leader of Fine Gael, Coveney said he intended on keeping the target he set.
“I am going after the commitments that I made,” he said.
“It is easy to set a target that isn’t difficult to achieve and then try and make yourself look good off the back of it, but that is not what politics or government should be about.
Government should always be about pushing boundaries, finding solutions that is always how I have approached issues that I have taken on and homelessness is no different – and we will get on top of homelessness.
The Government has in the past set ambitious targets for tackling homelessness which it has failed to meet. For example, its commitment to end homelessness by the end of 2016.
However, Mike Allen – director of advocacy with Focus Ireland – has said people should not be critical of ambitious targets, even if they’re not met. That ambitious targets were needed if the issue of homelessness was to be solved.
However, he said while significant money and effort had been put into achieving July’s goal, more could have been done focussing on other measures.
“We think that a huge amount of political energy and money has gone into building emergency accommodation for families,” Allen told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland last month.
If the same political commitment had gone into preventing them from becoming homeless… much more would have been achieved.
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The landlord is greedy and chancing his arm.
The landlord is broke and chancing his arm!
I think the upwards only clause is the real problem here. Theres no justification for it and is effectively baring market forces from working.
This is a landmark case.
Upward only rent reviews over 35 years…. The fact that there are people out there that would agree to this in the first place makes them total idiots… Reminds me of goodfellas… Oh your business got hit by lighting yeah…. F**k you pay me..!
There is no upwards only clause in this case hence the High Court decision.
The landlord is the country (me, you, everybody), we own the company that controls the lease.
The Irish commercial property market is an organised cartel.
This cartel imposed the most draconian commercial property lease law i.e upward-only rent reviews tied to very long leases, on all Irish commercial tenants. No other commercial tenants in the world had to endure this feudal lease law. This feudal lease law inflated commercial property rents and prices. The commercial property bubble is a direct consequence of this lease law.
In March 2011 the government, in it’s program for government pledged “We will pass legislation to ban upward only rent reviews in existing commercial leases”. The cartel responded immediately. ” Ireland First” a group of seventeen business experts including a former Fine Gael Taoiseach and two tax exiles, and “Property Industry Ireland” a group representing the property industry including a former Fine Gael Taoiseach’s son,were some of the cartel’s lobbyists. On 6th December 2011 MInister Noonan announced to the Dail that the government were not proceeding with this reform. The people have voted to abolish upward-only rent reviews-that is their democratic choice based on a single transferable voting system we have in place-but the government is ignoring the democratic will of the people and saying the cartel’s rights trump democracy. They are allowing the cartel to veto the orderly adjustment of the commercial property rental market. In Ireland the vested interests always win out over the public interest. This cowardly and disastrous u-turn has destroyed tens of thousands of sustainable Irish jobs and businesses. It has created a dysfunctional two-tier commercial property rental market which will undermine the recovery of the economy and the commercial property investment market.
Kerins and Flannery were involved in that lobby group as well apparently.
Here’s the full list: Angela Kerins, (co-chair) ; Philip Lynch (co-chair); Michael Berkery; John Bruton
Leslie Buckley; Pat Cox; Dermot Desmond; Frank Flannery; Ray MacSharry; Denis O’Brien; Sean O’Driscoll; Michael O’Flynn; Mike Soden; Michael Somers; Dick Spring; Peter Sutherland and Brendan Tuohy.
What a list of patriots.
But upward only contracts keep our betters in the life they are accustomed and entitled to. Great bunch of lads.
Aaaand the usual comments.
This case isn’t about whether upward only rent reviews are legal in new leases. They aren’t. It isn’t about whether upward only rent reviews are legal in old leases. They are. The only issue is whether the clause in this particular lease was an upward only clause in the first place. The High Court says it wasn’t.
I thought new leases didn’t have these type of upward only clauses at all.
Wish Ronan would fu** off back to Morocco on his private jet and never come back
The government’s u-turn on it’s program for government pledge to ban upward-only rent reviews in existing commercial property leases;
It was agreed budget day would be the least bad day to make the announcement. Minister Noonan mentioned landlords compensation to get Minister Shatter off the hook. Gerard Hogan SC had dealt with this point in his legal opinion,landlords were entitled to market rents,but not to compensation. In May 2011 Minister Shatter had stated to the Irish and international media there was an emergency job crisis and under article 43.2.2 of the constitution,in the “exigencies of the common good”, banning UORRs in existing commercial leases was vital. Furthermore Minister Shatter stated it wouldn’t effect Nama’s valuations. He had a copy of the esteemed senior counsel Gerard Hogan’s opinion and Colm McCarthy’s report to support this position.
Democracy was overturned,the cartel had triumphed.
Greedy and a joke that he should per sue this…upward only rent days are gone
Haven’t noticed bewleys dropping their prices since 2007 … Double standard
Maybe they would if their rent came down.
Maybe they should lead by example.
Good business acumen there, “let’s reduce service prices that will make our landlord happy and he will then reduce our rent”
Let’s continue to charge massive money to stupid idiots and then cry poverty to our landlord.
As my solicitors informed me, give a lease with no mention of any clause or rent review. When it’s over simply start a completely new contract and charge what you like. It’s that simple. Same principle applies to labour, zero hour or short term contracts protect your interests best. Any issue just kick them out or don’t renew.
Easy to see what kind of properties you rent.
The tennent signed the lease with the upwards only rent review clause.
No. The person commenting on the Journal article didn’t read it properly.
And then the economy collapsed.
It’s the journals fault.
This is disgraceful creeping communism that a judge can decide the price that a private citizen is allowed charge for a good. Disgraceful absolutely disgraceful
He’s not deciding the price he’s deciding whether it’s legal and part of the contract to charge them a few hundred percent above market value, maybe read the article?
On page 92 of his ground breaking book ” Breakfast with Anglo” the distinguished Irish developer,columnist and author Simon Kelly states “The building was occupied by a tenant,but they were breaking their lease early and paying six years rent to get out. That seemed CRAZY to me, but it was an institutional tenant, and there’s no accounting for their logic.”
Indeed Simon Kelly is spot on –it is Crazy. Ireland has the most anti-tenant commercial property lease law in the world i.e. ratchet upward-only rent reviews tied to very long leases, some like Carrisbrook House Ballsbridge for sixty five years,but mainly for thirty five years. In all other countries lease lengths for commercial property and residential properties are similar, at say five years.l
The payment of rent is governed by the provisions of the lease. US leases are of varying lengths but rarely for longer than ten years and often for 3-year periods; Australian leases of grade A and premium office appear similar to the US. Leases in the Far East are often shorter still. The tendency in the UK is towards 5,10 or 15 year leases, but it is now not uncommon for industrial and office leases to include breaks,normally timed at 5-year review date. In continential Europe 3-10 year leases are very common.
The regularity with which rents may be increased also differs throughout the world. While in the US,Hong Kong and Singapore the 3-year lease is usually at a fixed rent and the Australian office and retail leases include annual fixed or consumer-price-index reviews, the continental European leases often have rents indexed annually. Longer North American leases may have rents tied to the rate of inflation or,more often, to tenants turnover; this is rare in the UK. Change to the UK commercial leasing regime has been one of the most important property market issues since the UK PROPERTY CRASH OF 1990
No other government in the world would sign these ruinous leases, and waste billions of it’s citizens money.
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