As the government courts more international money for Ireland’s rental sector, tenants say they want more transparency around who they are renting from.
First announced back in 2014, the effort to get a group of households to build a home on a vacant city-centre site has been chalked up as good idea, wrong time.
Rough sleepers and people living in emergency accommodation are counted as homeless. But couch-surfers, squatters, car-sleepers and many others are left out of the statistics.
Some councillors argue that Dublin City Council carries out unnecessary and costly works on vacant council homes, when they’re in decent condition and tenants are eager to move in.
When Dublin City Council released its vacant sites register this month, it was entirely blank. Some ask why the council didn’t at least list its own sites.
But did the government push Apollo House residents to the front of the queue? A look at Dublin’s two-tiered system of emergency accommodation for homeless people.
Some buildings are so badly designed it’s nearly impossible to keep it at bay, no matter how much we open windows, run ventilator fans, and wipe walls with bleach or Fairy liquid.
When Dublin City Council says that less than 1 percent of its housing stock is “void”, some Dubliners are confused. That might be because of how it counts.
Chris Lynch hopes greater transparency in the sector will push landlords to improve standards, and help those with a choice to make informed decisions.
It was once “a hive of industry”, a neighbour said. But the buildings went derelict one after another during the 1980s and 1990s, says a local business owner.
