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.
In 2017, emails and memos from officials at the Department of Public Expenditure suggest they were unconvinced of the need for affordable-housing schemes.
The little street, long a cluster of affordable homes hosting students, artists and hardworking families, seems to be in the process of a change that is transforming it into a different kind of neighbourhood.
Councillors and local residents say the Dublin City Council effort to bring in a developer to build 640 homes on the site seems to be stalled. The council says it’s not.
Councillors want more clarity on fundraising for the new city library, the council says planned “affordable” homes at O’Devaney will be for sale (not for rent), and more.
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.
