Unreal estate

Eleven people are squeezed into a two-bed owned by Dublin City Council. Meanwhile, there are just three people living in a council-owned five-bed.

Tackling racism, delisting Mercer House, and allowing companion pets were among the issues discussed at a meeting of Dublin City Council’s housing committee.

Sometimes women are blamed for anti-social behaviour, when actually they were suffering domestic violence, says Niamh White of refuge Aoibhneas.

All the listings were around the Liberties, including a whole block on Long’s Place. They weren’t up anymore on Tuesday night.

The council should soften up its rules on when to let people keep pets, according to a motion approved by councillors in the north-west part of the city.

A tourist who stayed and was disturbed by the sign struggled to get clear answers.

Hundreds of approved housing bodies manage tens of thousands of homes across Ireland, many in Dublin, and government housing policy has been to back that growth.

Some residents of Gloucester Square have been documenting illegal short-term letting in their apartment complex, and pushing for someone – anyone – to do something about it so they can sleep again.

Most councillors voted against looking at changing direction with the council’s flagship housing projects on Monday. But there was more support for a rethink than before.

“There is no other record in the country like it. I think that is a real treasure trove,” says Ellen Murphy.

The Residential Tenancies Board now offers accreditation to landlords if they volunteer for a day-long training and test. Some say it should be compulsory.

The Player Wills site has been sitting vacant for years, but there’s an effort underway to get Dublin City Council to take it over and develop cost-rental and affordable housing on it.

They are often gated, and offer no routes for pedestrians to cut through to get where they’re going. Developers say that’s for security reasons, others say it divides the city.

Patrick Nelis visits the Residential Tenancies Board most days, sometimes twice a day, to argue cases for tenants. He didn’t always do this. He used to work with horses.

Academic Michelle Norris says the scheme to sell homes to tenants should be suspended given the current housing crisis. But some Dublin city councillors aren’t so sure.

As of December 2017, the owner of this building was Martina Investments Limited, a company registered in Guernsey, and owned by two companies in the Bahamas.

There’s an inflexibility to rezoning industrial land, wrote a Department of Housing official in an email in February. “Its been represented to me quite a few times.”

In Rebuilding Ireland, the Department of Housing promised an affordable housing scheme would be finalised by late 2016. Here’s why that didn’t happen.

In 2017, emails and memos from officials at the Department of Public Expenditure suggest they were unconvinced of the need for affordable-housing schemes.

Of the 46 derelict sites listed almost three and a half years ago on Dublin City Council’s register, 18 are still on the list.

Most of the complaints to the council since the beginning of 2017 are still being looked into, and less than a quarter of the properties are back under long-term leases.

If they’re going to make an impact, they should be focused on the issue full-time – and not just be existing staff members now endowed with an extra title, says Francis Doherty, of Peter McVerry Trust.

For years the council has been saying they will be made into apartments for people who are homeless. But that still hasn’t happened.

The council intends to use the long-vacant site for heritage purposes, says Lord Mayor Nial Ring.

Across the city in recent times, residents have complained of construction noise in the early morning, or late at night.

Within the first six months of this year, the RTB spent more on hiring rooms for hearings than it did for all of last year.

They say companies are cutting paperwork corners in ways that can mean less pay, or at least fewer benefits, for the workers.

The complex used to serve as emergency accommodation for 29 homeless families.

“We have seen a lot of cranes in the Docklands but not a lot of homes. Particularly affordable homes,” says Green Party Councillor Ciarán Cuffe.

The area around Kevin Street Upper is pockmarked with building sites.

Because the land is owned by a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council-owned company, and not the council itself, councillors won’t get their usual say in whether it is sold at this stage.

It’s a smallish patch – but some local councillors say they’re against the idea as they grow more concerned about the lack of apartments and houses being built in the neighbourhood.

Some of the other depot sites could be used for social and affordable housing, a report to councillors says.

From a hole in the kitchen wall to drips from the ceiling, over the years Rita Cahill has catalogued an array of problems with her home, built as part of the Ballymun regeneration.

As a major landowner, state-owned Córas Impair Éireann (CIÉ) is helping to shape the city. But is it acting in the interests of all?

Dublin City Council faces challenges in its plans to renovate or rebuild more than 6,000 apartments. What will it do with those who live in the complexes?

There should be a comprehensive, public database of who owns the properties in the city, says Francis Doherty of Peter McVerry Trust. “It’s in the public interest, the common good.”

It’s been more than three years since Dublin City Council said it planned to use its biggest sites for housing, including land at St Michael’s Estate.

“There are rules around bringing [new] people in, and people don’t know what they can and can’t do, which could put the tenancy at risk,” says Stephen Large of Threshold.

The council had put in a bid, but says it’s been unsuccessful in securing the site – and that a private company has bought it instead.

There are 51 apartments in the complex, which lies south of Dundrum. In January 2017, 34 were occupied, but now only 23 are.

A “cost-rental” pilot project may deliver two-beds at a cost far below what’s on the market, says Housing Agency CEO John O’Connor.

The council says it wants mixed neighbourhoods so it tries to gets its slice of “Part V” social housing on-site in new developments. Costs mean it’s looking to relax that.

Six months ago, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy announced plans for a cap on the deposit a landlord can ask for from a renter. It’s not in place yet.

Great news, thanks to 72 supporters, as of 30 March, we now have enough to pay a market-research firm to do this survey. Thanks everyone! We’ll get to work.

The landowners lobbied for the change and told councillors they plan to develop affordable housing there. Some councillors worry they’ll just flip it once its value rises.

With help from Dubliners and the Space Engagers app, the Peter McVerry Trust hopes to identify and bring back into use 45 vacant homes by 2020.

Some are concerned that many workers on building sites are falsely being classed as self-employed to keep costs down. It means they’ll miss out on supports if they lose their jobs.

Sonia Traynor feels she was duped into accepting the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme, which offers no more stability than any other private rented tenancy.

It’s unclear, as yet, if the offer will be accepted.

Others say it doesn’t matter what type of organisations are running these new homeless hostels for families, as long as the quality of service is good, and they are well monitored.

“There is nothing to stop a developer building even inside the old stone walls,” says People Before Profit Councillor Tina MacVeigh. “That’s what we’re trying to prevent.”

In July this year, Waterways Ireland raised the water level to prevent people from sleeping or doing drugs under Binns Bridge, where Dorset Street crosses the Royal Canal.

We would like to talk to renters who have had to move when the government closed their homes for being overcrowded and/or substandard.

It hasn’t been easy to find places to put new hostels, says independent Councillor Christy Burke, who also volunteers helping homeless people.

Many council-owned apartments are sitting empty in ageing complexes scheduled to be torn down and rebuilt in the coming years. Some argue that people could live in them in the meantime.

Local residents are sceptical, wondering why the old shopping centre can’t be revived instead, and remembering all the false promises they’ve been given in the past.

A copy of an independent fire inspector’s report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, does not appear to clear the building as fire-safe and ready for occupancy.

The council owns 11 hectares in Belmayne, perhaps enough for 1,000 new homes. One councillor wonders why the council isn’t working faster to develop it.

As government thinks about how best to regulate the conversion of apartments from homes into short-term holiday lets, companies continue their conversions.

While there are concerns about how a planned redevelopment of Newmarket Square will affect local businesses, the developers behind the project say it will be good for everybody.

Oppermann Associates, which was also the architect on the troubled Priory Hall development, was architect on at least one of the schools recently found to have fire-safety defects.

A rapid-build structure put up by Western Building Systems, the NSAI inspected it in 2009, and since 2014 it has been embroiled in a court case.

Architect Gregory Jackson wants to roll-out a co-housing project in Foxrock. But there are challenges.

The Office of the Information Commissioner has ruled that the Department of Education must release fire-safety reports for a number of schools. The department has four weeks to appeal.

“People are sitting on assets and they don’t need the rent,” says Francis Doherty, communications officer at the Peter McVerry Trust.

Some say they welcome the planned redevelopment of the square, but that it would be a loss to the city if existing businesses did not form part of its future.

“Sleeping bags are provided to clients as a humanitarian response when there is no accommodation available,” says the DRHE. But rough-sleepers say that doesn’t always happen.

A group of entrepreneurial Dubliners are eyeing up the land at St Michael’s Estate for a different kind of affordable housing, built through a community land trust.

The site has been subject to a half-dozen planning applications over the last number of years. It’s on the council’s Vacant Sites Register, but its owners are appealing that.

Dublin City Councillors sometimes agree to sell off a property with the proviso that the buyer must start redeveloping it within months. That doesn’t always happen.

Some letting agents don’t limit the number of people invited to viewings of up-for-rent homes, so as many as 100 might show up. Some say it’s fair, others that it’s heartless.

In this book, which offers lessons for Dublin, Peter Moskowitz looks at the growing inequality of American cities – and how planning and housing policies have pushed aside the poorest.

Dublin City Council has only one conservation officer, and it lost its only buildings-at-risk officer back in 2009.

As Dublin City Council rolls out its nine planned “family hubs”, some are asking who is going to be keeping an eye on standards and child-protection.

As more sites are lined up for office buildings and apartment complexes, some are wondering how best to make sure that local residents benefit from the work it will bring.

At meetings this week, councillors discussed where exactly “family hubs” for homeless families will be, and settled on social and affordable housing figures for Poolbeg West.

Part of the facade was apparently removed just before councillors voted to start the process of putting the building on the list of protected structures.

Dublin City Council can force owners of derelict sites to sell to them, but it has only done that rarely in the past. This year, things are beginning to change.

When fire broke out at 1/2 Mountjoy Square in February, some pointed to a history of planning complaints at the property.

While obstacles discouraging their owners from opening them up and renting them out seem well understood, progress on smoothing the way has been slow.

Even while there’s a shortage of housing for Dubliners, companies have converted residential apartment blocks in the city into holiday lets for tourists.

“I’m curious as to why this is happening … suddenly there’s a load of it. Is it EU grant led?” asks a reader.

If your commute runs south from the city past Cherrywood, you might have noticed a row of boarded-up properties on Bray Road. Why are they empty?

Dublin City Council and the Department of Housing are looking at further regulating Airbnb, amid concerns it could be contributing to the housing shortage.

There were no beds available for women in homeless hostels on 15 February, according to Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. And some say it wasn’t a one-night problem.

Some councillors are wary about whether the council’s strategy for moving homeless families from hotels by 1 July is going work.

At their monthly housing committee meeting, councillors talked about plans to further research the impact of Airbnb on the housing market, and more.

First announced back in 2014, the effort to get a group of households to build a home on a vacant city-centre site has been chalked up as good idea, wrong time.

Rough sleepers and people living in emergency accommodation are counted as homeless. But couch-surfers, squatters, car-sleepers and many others are left out of the statistics.

Dublin City Councillors have agreed to sell the old Aungier House pub on the corner of Aungier Street and Digges Street. The new owners have plans.

Best practice standards that relate to sharing rooms, outlined in 1999, are still not being adhered to 18 years on.

When Dublin City Council released its vacant sites register this month, it was entirely blank. Some ask why the council didn’t at least list its own sites.

But did the government push Apollo House residents to the front of the queue? A look at Dublin’s two-tiered system of emergency accommodation for homeless people.

Some buildings are so badly designed it’s nearly impossible to keep it at bay, no matter how much we open windows, run ventilator fans, and wipe walls with bleach or Fairy liquid.

When Dublin City Council says that less than 1 percent of its housing stock is “void”, some Dubliners are confused. That might be because of how it counts.

It was once “a hive of industry”, a neighbour said. But the buildings went derelict one after another during the 1980s and 1990s, says a local business owner.

Chris Lynch hopes greater transparency in the sector will push landlords to improve standards, and help those with a choice to make informed decisions.

Dublin City Council is still working out whether to move ahead with the homes on big boats for students, workers, or tourists. But as the city debates it, Dun Laoghaire is pressing ahead.

Like many buildings across the city, the historic pub has been left vacant and allowed to crumble. The developer says it’s no longer possible to preserve it.

Spread over more than 3,000 square metres, the old mills site in Kilmainham has been empty since the year 2000. Plans for it have come and gone.

At last week’s Dublin City Council housing committee meeting, councillors discussed who’s monitoring homeless services and how to make sure you aren’t removed from the social housing list.

There is an acute housing shortage across the city, but there are also some homes that are affordable for couples on average wages. How is that?

Barber Eddie Wykes used to both live and work in this four-storey vacant building on Upper Abbey Street. It needed to be knocked down some time ago, he says.

As the old flat complex in the north inner city is torn down, have councillors made the right choice for what will replace it?

Work is underway, says Brian Montague one of the owners of The Legal Eagle pub on Chancery Place. It’s been delayed but not forgotten.

With seven buildings full of artists’ studios across the city, has MART found a sustainable model to provide affordable spaces for the city’s artists to work in?

Once popular with George’s Quay locals and Trinity students, it closed in March 2015. Now it is “OPENING SOON”, according to a sign in the window. Is it really, though?

In the latest in our vacancy watch series, we look at another disused strip of Aungier Street you might have noticed.

A year ago, Dublin City Council and housing activists clashed in court over the occupation of a vacant Bolton Street building. It’s still empty.

The council is looking at putting up multi-storey buildings in the city centre made of stackable prefab homes. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about its first batch of rapid-build homes.

The two Dublin areas with the highest proportions of vacant dwellings aren’t exactly synonymous with vacancy.

Do property owners have a right to privacy? Do residents have the right to know who owns a vacant or derelict property that’s ruining their neighbourhood?

The old City Arts building on Moss Street used to be a hub. Nowadays, it’s more of a shell. Here’s what happened.

What’s happening with what should be a tasty piece of land? The answer is a slightly complicated.

Progress on Cherry Orchard rapid-builds, Dominick St and Charlemont St. Delays with the lands initiative and at St Teresa’s Gardens. Danger at O’Devaney.

For more than 30 years, these prime homes in Ballsbridge have been partially vacant. At one time, they were 30 bedsits.

“Vacancy watch!” wrote in Davey Donnelly, with a photo of an apartment block on James Street. “Vacant as long as I’ve been in the area.” What’s the story?

In Dublin 6, nine empty social housing units might soon be filled. It’s taken a lot longer than it should have.

Other cities with housing shortages have cracked down on the landlords who rent out apartments to tourists on Airbnb instead of to long-term local tenants. At least one Dublin city councillor wants to look into doing the same here.

Dublin City Council spends millions every year on hotel rooms, B&Bs and hostels for people with nowhere else to live. And it wants them to know they have rights while staying there.

When Dublin City Council looked at why people were becoming homeless, the problem of overcrowding featured high on the list.

The Screen cinema is closed, Hawkins House is to be demolished, and Luas tracks are being laid. What’s afoot around George’s Quay?

Squatters were evicted from the property last year. It was sold and left vacant for months, and now it’s been reoccupied. In a time of housing shortage, it’s home to at least 30 people – and soon, perhaps, more.

There are single people living in big houses, and families living in rooms. What’s the solution to the mismatch?

For developments that are in the pipeline, is there any way to speed them up?

Three-bedrooom houses in Dublin should ideally be at least 100 sqm, a standard the council held an Ailesbury Rd development to in September. But smaller homes are apparently okay in Poppintree, for rapid-build houses, for homeless families.

As the Luas Red Line glides through Dublin’s city centre, it passes trash-strewn empty lots, vacant patches, and boarded-up buildings. Is it ever going to change?

It looks like the battle by the homeless families trying to avoid eviction from emergency accommodation is coming to a close.

A reader asked us to look into how many vacant properties the HSE has in the Dublin area, and whether they could be used for housing. Here’s what we found out.

Fairview residents and councillors want to see Thomas Clarke’s home maintained better, and perhaps turned into a museum or community centre.

If the route to fixing the housing crisis is all about adding supply, it’s not looking too good.

At the moment, about 120 creatives from web developers to performers work in the Block T building on all kinds of projects. They’re looking for a new home.

If you’ve recently found yourself on Dawson Street, you’ll have noticed the mound of rubble where a large office block once stood.

At their monthly meeting on Monday, councillors voted to press ahead with the first major Dublin City Council housing project since the economic crash.

As the council struggles to find enough accommodation for a growing number of homeless people, residents’ rights have eroded and housing standards have slipped, say councillors and agencies.

More studio spaces close each year, and Dublin artists say something needs to change. But what’s the solution?

Why is it that when you pull the skin off so many of these shiny boom-time apartment buildings, they turn out to have rotten cores?

Dublin City Council says it’ll install 22 modular houses for homeless families on a site in Poppintree before Christmas. But a housing co-op already has plans for the site.

People living near Herbert Park have been lobbying Dublin City Council to fix it up. Last week, the council revealed its new draft plan to do that.

But still, nobody will fess up to being responsible for the poor conditions in the first place: mildew-caked ceilings, exposed electrical wires and damp.

On Monday, small groups stopped to say goodbye to the last of the Ballymun’s iconic towers, Joseph Plunkett. On Tuesday late afternoon, engineers began to demolish it.

Has the ban achieved its goals: greater diversity of tenure and a better social mix in the area? And should it remain in place?

How much should the council spend on prefabs for homeless families? Where should the new homes go? And how fast can they be brought online? Winter is coming.

In the coming months, expect to hear more ideas from councillors on how to tap in to underused inner-city buildings in Dublin.

There have been calls to increase rent supplement rates to keep more families from becoming homeless, but Labour Minister Alan Kelly says that would lead to an increase in rents. Is he right?

Dublin City Council has taken two housing activists, who have helped open an abandoned council building on Bolton Street to house homeless people, to court for trespassing.

Dublin City Council doesn’t want housing activists to move homeless families into the abandoned hostel now, perhaps because of a plan from an organisation called Novas Initiatives to turn it into social housing later.

Long Lane residents have faced regular vandalism and a brush with gangland crime. What is it about this street?

Plans for a new National Children’s Hospital in Dublin 8 have area residents worried about traffic, parking, noise, subsidence and drainage.

Dublin City Council has begun planning for the construction of 400 prefabricated houses to accommodate homeless families. While some councillors are very wary, prefab housing has come a long way over the years and other countries have good experiences with it.

At the Dublin Food Co-op in The Liberties, about 35 people turned up to chat about starting a housing co-op, as a way to get themselves an affordable – and democratic – home.