What would become of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay if the council relocates?
After The Currency reported the idea of the council moving its HQ, councillors were talking about and thinking through the pros and cons and implications.
At a recent meeting of councillors for the North Central Area, a Dublin City Council official outlined the latest progress in trying to get the suburb the facilities it needs.
Lower social welfare payments for people aged 18–24 mean it’s even more of a struggle for them to gather the resources to move out of a hostel and into a home.
Dublin City Council has been granting temporary permission, in some cases for years, for some complexes built for students to be rented to others.
There is a “serious lack of transparency and clarity around rights” for people who are homeless, says Adam Spollen, who is working on the project.
More than half of the homes granted planning permission in Dublin between 2018 to 2020 were built to be rented, show council and CSO figures.
“Look there are layers of plastic,” says John Drinane, dressed in jeans and a green baseball cap. “It is built up for years.”
The council has come across 21 properties so far, some with multiple apartments, that have been short-term lets so long they can’t be forced back into the regular rental market.
Much of that period was during the pandemic, with tenants nevertheless allowed to stay in their homes – but that’s now changing.
Aoife Spillane-Hinks has worked with around 25 writers, she says, as the lead artist at the Axis Ballymun’s pop-up literary department.
These issues and the timeline for construction of new housing at O’Devaney Gardens were among the topics Dublin city councillors discussed at their monthly meeting on Monday.
The draft policy suggests, among other measures, that the council consult local groups before offering new tenants a home in a community.
Currently, most of the pollution in the water body comes from dirty water that gushes in through a storm pipe when it rains heavily.