‘People are sleeping in cars’ Cllr warns as housing crisis intensifies

A Donegal councillor has lambasted the government over what she says is the biggest challenge facing people in the county at present, claiming some people are sleeping in cars and sofas because of the lack of available housing.

Cllr Niamh Kennedy said she had recently been told by a landlord that the price of rental properties for “bog standard accommodation” was in the region of €700 per month.

She said for some people of her generation that was the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment.

She told donegallive.ie: “Trying to get housing in Donegal is a savage issue at present. There are people sleeping in cars, there are people sleeping on other people’s sofas. I just cannot get over just how bad it is and what the demand is for housing and how slow the whole process is.”

She said that she regularly had people contacting her in desperation, as they find themselves unable to make any headway against what she says is a desperate situation.

Independent Cllr Niamh Kennedy of the Donegal Municipal District

“There is no place to rent, there is no place for anybody to go to. Everywhere just seems to be gone.

“And you are talking about all ages - young people, nobody wants to take in students or anybody that is on HAP (Housing Assistance Payment).”

Cllr Kennedy gave an example of how she had put a call out recently trying to get any kind of a house between Kilcar and Dunkineely.

“I had one person contact me from Glencolmcille to tell me that they had a five bedroom house that they could rent out to me for the winter, but if they (the tenants) were on HAP, they were not interested.” 

She cited another example of a person who had contacted her from the south of the county, explaining that a sibling was now sleeping on the couch in their house.

She was on a respectable income, working and had been living in the Twin Towns “waiting to see if she could get one of these flats that were up for sale or for rental and they were given away to Ukrainians”.  

She said that many of the people who were now providing housing for Ukrainians were housing tourism accommodation before and this was another route through which renters were able to access housing at some times of the year.

She said that some people would have availed of this accommodation in the past, but that was not an avenue that they could pursue any longer.

“Also, the older people who used to do B&Bs don’t want to do it anymore as they are getting older and there is a whole knock on effect from that.”

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In terms of those “desperate” for housing at present, she explained: “There are a whole tranche of people that apart from those that are on the housing list, are ineligible for one reason or another, so the real figures could be many times that figure.”

Cllr Kennedy also said that the mica issue was still something that was causing deep distress within communities as well. 

“We also have an awful lot of mica families that have nowhere to live. Our county development plan doesn't seem to allow us use modular homes and there also seem to be issues coming down to us from department level regarding the redress scheme and the new one”  

“There is such a lack of clarity and a lack of will to actually do something and it is so, so frustrating.”