As an anti-immigrant encampment dwindles on Basin View, its organisers try to rally
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”.
Instead, it’s moving staff to focus on other housing projects that will deliver more homes, said Dublin City Council’s head of housing.
This isn’t viable, so another use for the site will have to be found, a council official said.
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.
Councillors face tough decisions as vulnerable and desperate groups make their cases for priority amid a shortage of social homes.
The government is reportedly looking into the idea.
“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.
A spokesperson for the Dublin Region Homeless Executive said its priority was “to ensure there is an adequate provision of accommodation for people experiencing homelessness”.
There is debate over whether there is a shortage of residentially zoned land and what’s holding homes up.
Some say that the different types of tenure should be laid out in master plans or zoning to meet the housing needs in an area.
The Department of Housing has vetoed the council’s designs for the Herbert Simms-designed Pearse House in the south inner-city.
This comes a few years after it rolled out a previous IT system that was supposed to include this function, among others, and went millions over budget.