228 council-owned houses are currently vacant across Limerick
ACCORDING to extensive research conducted by Aontú there are currently more than 3,500 council-owned houses vacant around the country including 228 homes in Limerick.
The data was secured after Aontú submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act to all local authorities in the country.
The figures released also show that nationally there are 98,171 people on housing waiting lists, 54,468 households or people in receipt of the housing assistance payment HAP and 10,603 in the Rental Accommodation Scheme RAS.
Limerick has the third highest number of vacant houses at 228, only Dublin and Cork have larger numbers.
In Limerick, underlying the depth of the housing crisis, there are 2,148 households availing of HAP with a further 1,237 on RAS.
The length of the waiting list is 2,485 applicants.
Speaking today, Aontú Housing Spokesperson, Sarah Beasley said; "It is incredible that in the jaws of a national emergency in terms of housing that well over 3,500 local authority homes are lying empty tonight, well over 200 Limerick families could be housed if the vacant stock was turned around faster.”
‘’According to Aontú's findings, there are enough empty local authority homes in the state to house well over half the number of people who are homeless. Much of the focus of the political bubble has been on the large number of empty homes in private hands. However, we in Aontú believe that it's unforgivable that state bodies themselves preside over empty homes. Thousands of homeless people are living in emergency accommodation throughout the country at great human cost to themselves and at great financial cost to the state.’’
Sarah continued; “The HAP and RAS figures also show the continuing reliance on the private sector for the provision of social housing. In many ways this is robbing Peter to pay Paul. HAP and RAS are not additional housing units. They are homes taken from the private rental sector squeezing that section of the market further. We need new additional social housing units to really increase supply. State spending on rent subsidies is now well over €1 billion per annum. This is dead money that has no long-term benefit to society.”