KILDARE: Council's purchase of 55 homes won't be enough'
Housing crisis
Approval has been given for Kildare County Council to buy 55 homes where tenants are living - to avert the sale of the property on the open market.
KCC began buying so-called tenant-in-situ properties last year and since then has bought, or is in the process of buying, 39 properties.
Green Party councillors Peter Hamilton, Colm Kenny and Vanessa Liston have urged KCC to maximise the purchase of homes put up for sale so that they can be provided to those seeking social housing or those receiving housing assistance payments, which help people rent properties in the private market.
Those acquisitions are funded through the government which provides the money to KCC but the council acknowledges that 55 homes will be inadequate.
Cllr Hamilton pointed out that there are about 1,500 people on the waiting list for homes so the number of properties bought needs to be increased.
Cllr Aidan Farrelly told a KCC meeting that the council should not wait until people become homeless to act while Cllr Aoife Breslin likened the 55 figure to “a drop in the ocean.”
Cllr Breslin said the lifting of the ban on evictions will greatly increase the demand for housing and she predicted that 55 homes “could be gone in two weeks.”
KCC official Annette Aspell that if more homes can be acquired then this will be considered.
Ms Aspell also said that there is no issue that she is aware of at government level about buying more.
She also indicated that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has indicated that the number of acquisitions approved nationally, 1500, will be kept under review throughout 2023.