One man who’s been involved has been trying to organise a social event on a nearby council football pitch, something the council says it’s “monitoring”.
Councils are reluctant to use the single-stage process because they take on more risk if something goes wrong, says Sinn Féin TD and housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin.
“I just cannot get over that they didn’t maintain the same level of funding at a minimum, because it’s a bloody great scheme,” says Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary, of the homelessness-prevention scheme.
Debate so far has been around the current costs of maintenance, which tenants may be asked to pay more, and the fairness of rent rises for those in poor conditions.
At one site, on Bonham Street, 57 “rapid-build” homes took almost four years to build and cost 51 percent more than originally agreed, an auditor’s report says.
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.
Solicitor Peter Boyle said he thinks many more tenants have strong cases they could take against the council, based on the mould and damp they are living with
Erika Dunne’s six-year-old son Ben has autism, a learning disability, and is nonverbal, and she needed a home she could adapt to keep him from hurting himself.
There are wider questions, too, about who has access to the many communal amenities at The Davitt, at what price – and how that fits with planning rules.
