About 250 Dublin City Council (DCC) social housing tenants have staged a demonstration against proposed rent rises of up to 50 per cent.
The increases are due to come into force from April 6th.
Average rents will increase from €83 to €108 a week, but higher-income social housing tenants will face steeper hikes, with some seeing their rent bills increase by more than 50 per cent.
The move follows an analysis of tenant incomes, which found more than a fifth of households living in city council houses and flats have an after-tax income of greater than €1,000 a week, but were paying heavily subsidised rents.
READ MORE
The move is being opposed by the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU), a representative group for the tenants, including those who occupy 29,000 DCC-run homes and apartments in the city.
CATU representatives warned that the increases will push tenants who are already struggling with the cost of living into further poverty.
“These rent hikes are tone-deaf, unjust and pose a massive risk to tenants across the city,” said Stephen Curran, a CATU Dublin member.
“We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis where families are already forced to choose between heating, food, electricity, childcare, the list goes on.
“An average 30 per cent increase, with some households facing hikes of over 50 per cent, will devastate tenants and drive many into deep debt. Dublin City Council must immediately halt these increases.”
CATU made three demands: an immediate reversal of the rent hikes, a meeting to discuss alternative methods of raising funds for maintenance and a published plan and timeline for maintenance and retrofit works.
“For years, tenants have been demanding proper investment in maintenance and energy efficiency retrofits,” Curran continued.
“Instead of presenting a clear, accountable plan and timeline for those essential works, the council is simply slapping tenants with massive rent bills.
“We are demanding they scrap these rent hikes, meet with us in good faith and finally produce a transparent roadmap for the future of public housing in this city.”
Veteran community activist Rita Fagan said Dublin councillors in City Hall were part of a “house of hardship”.
She has lived in the same flat in Pimlico for 64 years. She said council tenants like herself had, up to now, paid the rent “over and over again”. “We are saying no way, we won’t pay,” she added.
Tenants intend to continue their protests at the next monthly meeting of DCC on April 13th.
The council produced its new social housing rents policy, the first change to the rent system in 30 years, last November. It said previously that 5,000 households on the lowest incomes will see increased weekly charges of €5 or less, while 6,000 households will pay €5 to €10 more a week.
David Griffin lives with his wife in an apartment in George’s Place in north inner-city Dublin. He and his wife’s rent will go up from €67 to €92 a week.
“The Government gave us a €10 increase in the budget for cost-of-living and now they are giving us a rent hike of €25 a week," he said. “The conditions we live in are atrocious. When it rains badly, our flats are turned into indoor swimming pools. You can put your hand on the wall and it’s damp. For that privilege, they are going to charge us another €25 a week.”
Gayle Cullen-Doyle’s rent in Oliver Bond flats is increasing from €150 to €200.
“There are more and more people reaching out for help whether it be for food vouchers or hampers or bus fares to take their children to football training,” she said. “It affects absolutely everyone. We have to get our own stuff fixed. We are so angry about this.”
Joanna Coogan and Ellen Colgan both live in Harcourt Street flats. Coogan’s rent is going up from €174 to €216 a week; Colgan’s from €100 to €139.
Coogan said: “My rent is going up by 20 per cent without any maintenance, no lift to your floor, windows falling in, sewage. You ring DCC to fix them up. They don’t even have the men to come out. You’re just ignored and forgotten about. We’re not going to take it anymore.”
Colgan added: “We have had people who have had their ceilings fall in on top of them, their walls are cracked and there’s black mould growing everywhere.
“They talk about European standards and they have €250 million set aside for a build. Our flats don’t reach European standards by any means. I would have no problem paying my rent if my home was fit for purpose.”
