For 68-year-old Denis Kinevane, sharing a Dublin rental property with four others for nine years was a “nightmare”.
After his divorce, the construction worker was left with “no choice” but to rent, and lived in numerous properties around the city, he says. When he retired three years ago, his pension was being eaten up by rent payments, which this year reached €850 per month, he says, adding: “I was barely surviving.”
The years spent renting and the decade on Dublin City Council’s social housing list have coloured Kinevane’s view of Government promises on housing.
The Coalition’s new housing plan, launched on Thursday, sets a target of 12,000 new-build social homes each year until 2030. Focusing on older people, the plan envisages increasing the supply of social and private housing suitable for older people, supporting them to “age in place” in their homes or communities, and to help them rightsize to homes that better fit their need.
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It proposes a review of planning rules to make it easier for older people to convert part of their homes into separate living spaces and look at how to support older people who are renting privately, especially those nearing retirement, to address affordability challenges.
When asked about the new housing plan, Kinevane did not have high hopes: “Everything the government promised, they have reneged on ... The Government don’t care; once you retire you have no chance,” he says.
Kinevane has managed to escape the “demoralising” rental market. He reached out to Alone, the national organisation that supports older people to age well at home.
Kinevane was offered a space at Willie Bermingham Place residential centre for older people. He moved in over the summer on what he says was “the best day of my life”.
“I’m really lucky I’m here, I don’t know if I could have stuck it [where I was]. It was frightening. I try to forget about it now,” he says.
Alone’s chief executive Seán Moynihan said the new housing plan “named all the issues but has not put numbers against it”.
Housing is an issue that “affects everyone”, he says, pointing to an 83 per cent increase in older renters recorded in the last census.
“The reason people buy houses is to have safety and security for when they retire ... Imagine trying to pay rent while retired,” he adds.
The organisation is “concerned” the Government’s aim of 12,000 new social homes each year “does not go far enough, given the level of demand among older people and across the population”, says Moynihan.
Minister of State for Older People and Housing Kieran O’Donnell said the delivery of suitable homes and greater choice for older people is firmly prioritised in the new housing paper.
“This plan is a reflection of Government’s commitment to ensuring that older people can have the opportunity to avail of increased housing choice for ageing in place.”
