Reliance on private sector to build homes ‘must end’

The Government must reverse the direction it is taking in its social housing strategy, according to the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

In its pre-budget submission the charity says the Government remains over-reliant on the private sector in tackling the housing crisis. It is “adamant” the only real and lasting way out of the crisis is a massive return to public house building.

In its Social Housing 2020 strategy, the Government says 110,000 units of social housing will be provided over the next four years, 70 per cent of which will be through supports to households in the private-rented sector, such as rent supplement and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). The other 30 per cent will be units of housing built or acquired by local authorities and housing bodies.

The society says this 70:30 split between private and public must be switched around.

“SVP views the reliance on the private-rented sector to meet social housing over the past two decades as an abject failure and direct cause of the increase in family homelessness.

“While the society believes there is a role for a well-regulated and affordable private-rented sector in meeting social housing need in the short-term . . . SVP is adamant the provision of social housing units is the only real and lasting solution to the housing and homelessness crisis.”

Disagreement

At the submission publication on Tuesday, there was disagreement from the floor, between Dublin City councillor, John Lyons (People Before Profit) and Graham Stull, semester officer with the European Commission in Dublin, as to whether European Fiscal compact rules – which stipulate Government spending should not be “off balance sheet” – should be broken to allow greater spending on public housing.

While Cllr Lyons called the rules “arbitrary” arguing they came at “huge social cost to our people”, Mr Stull argued the rules were not arbitrary and were in place to protect people, particularly the most vulnerable, from the adverse impact of boom-bust economics.

The society makes 18 recommendations in its submission, focused on housing, income adequacy, childcare and after-school care, and fuel poverty. It urges the Government to prioritise investment in services over tax cuts in October’s budget.

John Mark McCafferty, the charity’s head of social justice, said while there were positive signs, including falling unemployment and projected economic growth, there remained 140,000 children in consistent poverty and 59 per cent of households headed by single parents experienced material deprivation.

The charity calls for a particular focus on lone-parent households, saying they were a “special case” in the fight against child poverty. These households had been badly affected by changes to the One Parent Family Payment introduced by the last government. They also figure disproportionately in the family homelessness figures.

Measures targeting this group should allow lone parents in employment, whose children are aged between seven and 14, receive both the Jobseekers’ Transition payment and the Family Income Supplement if they meet the criteria.

They also called for any increase in Child Benefit to be targeted at children aged 12 and over.