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.
The cost for those reliant on Housing Assistance Payment has gone up in many cases, pushing tenants into debt and poverty as they struggle to cover “top-ups” to landlords and scrape together deposits.
Since last February, councillors in a cross-party working group have met, to thrash out what a new model for public housing for the city should look like.
In April, the developers behind luxury apartments One Springfield Park went into receivership. In recent weeks the funder for the project, Cullaun Capital, closed up too.
Parkview in Ballymun appears to be one of Dublin’s last ghost estates. The construction of almost 300 homes stalled midway following the 2008 property crash.
Some say that PPPs are slower, more costly and riskier than the normal procurement process, while others see them as an innovative model in the government’s toolbox to tackle the housing crisis.
At Labre Park in Ballyfermot, some are calling for more caravans for those who may need them to self-isolate. But Dublin City Council said that overcrowding meant they planned instead to move people off-site.
Overcrowding has long been an issue in Dublin’s housing sector, which has been bursting at the seams for years now – but Covid-19 has put a sharper edge on it.
Councillors welcomed plans to build on long-vacant land but also have concerns about rents – which estimates suggest will be between €1,350 for a studio and €2,800 a month for a three-bed.
Dublin City Council has decided not to go ahead with a proposal to sell property on Berkeley Street in the north inner-city to the Cabhru Housing Association Service (CHAS), a council spokesperson said on Tuesday.
