The Government will have to embark upon a mass social housing building programme akin to that undertaken in the 1930, a leading housing charity has said.
Threshold, in its annual report published yesterday, has called on the Government to "at least double the number of social housing completions by local authorities".
Given that over 100,000 households are dependent on the State to either fully or partially provide their housing, social housing was urgently needed, the organisation said. There are 48,000 households on local authority waiting lists and over 60,000 on rent-supplements. An estimated further 100,000 households are currently living in social housing.
"The rented sector is not the answer, however, to the long-term housing needs of many currently living there," said Ms Aideen Hayden, chairwoman of Threshold.
"Serious thought must now be given to the treatment and provision of social housing. The pattern that has emerged in recent years has seen social housing shrink as a proportion of housing stock." Those in or waiting for social housing have become more and more marginalised, with 85 per cent of households on the housing lists living on less that €15,000 per year. "The reasons for this are varied but particular blame must be placed on the points system which limits social housing to those with special needs," said Ms Hayden. "This policy must change."
The report said the Government will "have to accept" building social housing on a scale similar to the 1930s. Between 1932 and 1942 large scale urban public housing building programmes got underway. Some 49,000 units - 60 per cent of total housing output - were built in that decade, compared with just 6,587 built last year.
"While this may be a dramatic solution conjuring up images of large scale local authority estates, there is no reason why the provision of social housing cannot by cross-subsidised by the State, developing private housing side by side."
For the vast majority of those Threshold helped last year, "the high cost of housing" remained the "most significant" issue. Some 66 per cent of its clients had incomes of less than €15,000 per annum.
