Incentives for residents of nursing homes to rent out their homes and a website where people may anonymously report the location of vacant homes, are among measures being considered to tackle the housing crisis.
Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said a number of moves are already in place or are moving rapidly into place ahead of the Government’s major strategy, due to be announced in September.
There are more than 8,000 families currently classed as homeless. Children aged four and younger are now the largest single age group experiencing homelessness .
Mr Murphy said “almost 80,000 vacant homes were identified in our cities and towns back in April 2016 when the Census took place”.
Among the key actions announced on Monday morning are:
- Exploring how the terms and conditions of the “Fair Deal” Nursing Home Support Scheme could be adjusted to encourage and facilitate the use of vacant properties of those in nursing home care.
- A website - vacanthomes.ie - has been developed as a central portal for individuals to anonymously log possible vacant properties.
- An initiative on rural resettlement as a measure to facilitate wider re-use of existing housing stock, especially in lower-demand rural areas.
- A dedicated Empty Homes Unit is being established by Mr Murphy to drive and co-ordinate actions at central and local government levels and to support local authorities in their actions.
- For the Dublin area and the other four main cities, the Minister has asked that these City Action Plans are produced by end-October, with the deadline for all other County Action Plans to be completed by the end of the year at the very latest.
- All local authority chief executives were requested earlier this month to designate vacant homes officers in each of their authorities. The officers will prioritise “vacant hot-spot” areas and properties that can be quickly brought back into use.
- Ensuring that all local authorities maximise the quick turnaround of their vacant social housing stock between lettings.
- Prioritising measures to allow the change of use of vacant commercial and over-the-shop premises to residential use without having to seek planning permission.
- Building on the Living City Initiative, address the range of urban vacancy issues, such as unused commercial properties, under-utilised upper-floor accommodation over shops, as well as conversion / upgrading of vacant properties.
Mr Murphy said the delayed publication of the Vacant Homes Strategy would not delay actions to get housing stock back into use.
“Increasing supply isn’t just about building new homes, it’s about managing the stock that we already have that’s not being used” he said.
“There is more to come under the strategy, but this is the right start. We need action taken at local level, with national co-ordination from my department.
“We’re building new houses and we’re going to build more, but with the pent-up demand in the system from years of little or no construction activity, we have to manage empty homes back into use.”
He said: “Almost 80,000 vacant homes were identified in our cities and towns back in April 2016 when the Census took place. It’s critical that we get a proper handle on the current vacancy levels, in terms of what’s changed and come back into use in the last 16 months, where they are and who owns these vacant properties. Armed with this information, we can then prioritise and target those areas where demand is greatest and help to increase the choice and availability of new homes to buy or rent.
“As I’ve said before, there’s going to be a carrot and stick approach to this, which will be finalised in the coming month or so. People with property interests need to be made aware that we are moving quickly on this.”
