€17m senior citizens housing complex empty over rents

A €17 million State-funded senior citizens' housing complex in Dublin's inner city has become the focus of a rents dispute between a Catholic housing body and Dublin City Council.

Fr Scully House, near the junction of Gardiner Street and Mountjoy Square, has 99 vacant apartments, but the council says it has been unable to allocate tenants to any of them because of the excessively high social housing rents sought by the Catholic Housing Aid Society.

The original Fr Scully House, 45 senior citizens’ bedsits, was built in the late 1960s on land granted to the society by the then Dublin Corporation. The complex was finally vacated in 2006 and subsequently demolished. Construction of the new complex of 90 one-bed apartments and nine two-beds has recently been completed.

The society received 100 per cent funding under the Capital Assistance Scheme (CAS). Under its terms, the society must agree an “economic rent” with the council and the council can nominate tenants on its social housing waiting list to 75 per cent of the units, while 25 per cent are chosen by the society.

The council’s housing department has been in negotiations with the society since July, but has been unable to agree an economic rent for the apartments.

The council said it could not say how much the society wanted to charge as talks were ongoing but, while €66-€68 was the average weekly CAS rent, the society had proposed a “significantly higher” sum.

Lord Mayor Christy Burke said the society was proposing to charge €90 for first-floor units, with rents rising for upper storeys. A society spokesman said some of its nominated tenants would be moving in this week, but he was not at liberty to discuss the rent issue.