The full council is set to vote in June on the plan to rejuvenate the square in line with its Georgian heritage, following 196 submissions to a public consultation.
It allows a council to skip applying to itself for planning permission via the so-called Part 8 process, when building social or affordable housing on public land.
Last year, tenants in Drimnagh and Cabra said they had been barred from communal facilities. Now, tenants in a new Liberties complex are finding the same.
It can anger the landlord, and alert the council that it shouldn’t be paying to subsidise rent for such a place – and risk leaving the tenant homeless.
Peter Byrne was refused an adjournment he asked for on medical grounds. His landlord, after saying it hadn’t had time to review the case, was granted one.
Ciara Hill has lived without a working shower or toilet, with mould and a broken front door, and a lingering dread that she will end up back where she was a few years ago – homeless again.
The council is making smaller improvements now, while working towards a major regeneration sometime in the future. Residents say that’s just not good enough.
There’s a cohort earning too much for social housing, but too little to qualify for the Land Development Agency’s new cost-rental “affordable” housing schemes.
