Former pubs and banks being used to deliver housing for homeless

Former pubs, barber shops and banks are being used along with vacant sites in an attempt to deliver housing for homeless people.

Chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust Pat Doyle said as many as 5,000 homeless people – about half of the total number – require one-bedroom accommodation.

He said his organisation is seeking to provide such accommodation by converting former pubs and other businesses as well as developing brownfield sites.

Mr Doyle was speaking before he and Minister for Housing Daragh O’Brien turned the sod on one such project at the site of a former warehouse on Dublin’s Shaw Street.The plan is to provide 11 one-bedroom and one two-bedroom apartments there.

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Mr Doyle said the private market is not delivering one-bedroom accommodation, but his organisation is seeking to provide about 70 this year.

“They’re all either old buildings, regenerated or else they’re new brownfield sites,” he said. “We have three or four of these brownfield sites in Dublin but we’re also bringing back four pubs into 18 units. We brought back a barber [shop] into three units.”

He said a former bank in Cork city is providing five units and added: "We're breathing life back into the cities."

Mr O’Brien said the Capital Assistance Scheme run through local authorities say 352 units were delivered last year, of which 150 comprised one bedroom. He said he expects 400 homes to be delivered under the scheme in 2022.

He said that the trust has been leading in terms of the use of such schemes and “now we’ve momentum” and “a really strong pipeline” of homes. Mr Doyle added that there has been huge work to house families in recent years while the number of single homeless people remained “stubbornly high”.

Meanwhile, new legislation came into effect on Monday requiring all landlords to pay an annual fee to register their tenancies with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB).

Previously a once-off fee of €90 was charged for registering a new tenancy with the board. But landlords will now be levied annually, with a €40 charge for private rentals, cost rentals and student specific accommodation (SSA) rentals. The yearly fee for tenancies managed by Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), ie those catering for social housing tenants, will be €20.

The annual fee must be paid within one month of the anniversary of when the tenancy began. The RTB said its online registration system will notify landlords in advance of the yearly anniversary of when the tenancy started, to ensure they register on time and, thereby, avoid late fees.

Late fees

Landlords who do not register annually will incur late fees of €10 for every month the registration fee is late, for private, cost rental and SSA rentals and €5 per month for AHB tenancies. If late fees are not paid, landlords could incur a fine of €4,000 and/or civil sanctions of up to €15,000 plus costs of up to €15,000.

There will be a four-month transition period for tenancies which have renewal anniversaries between April 4th and July 3rd. This transition period ends on August 3rd.

Residential Tenancies Board director Niall Byrne said the move was a necessary change to the law to enable it to collect “more timely and accurate data” on the residential rental sector.

“This data will strengthen the ability of the RTB to fulfil its statutory and regulatory functions in a more responsive and effective manner. The data insights and information will also help inform the development of rental sector policy,” he said.

“I would encourage landlords, if you haven’t done so already, to create an account on our new online tenancy registration system. So, when the time comes for you to register your tenancy annually, all your tenancy details will be up to date, which will help streamline the process. Landlords will receive a reminder notification from the RTB one month before the renewal date of each tenancy once their tenancy details are updated with us.”