“Vacancy watch!” wrote in Davey Donnelly, with a photo of an apartment block on James Street. “Vacant as long as I’ve been in the area.” What’s the story?
Other cities with housing shortages have cracked down on the landlords who rent out apartments to tourists on Airbnb instead of to long-term local tenants. At least one Dublin city councillor wants to look into doing the same here.
Dublin City Council spends millions every year on hotel rooms, B&Bs and hostels for people with nowhere else to live. And it wants them to know they have rights while staying there.
Squatters were evicted from the property last year. It was sold and left vacant for months, and now it’s been reoccupied. In a time of housing shortage, it’s home to at least 30 people – and soon, perhaps, more.
Three-bedrooom houses in Dublin should ideally be at least 100 sqm, a standard the council held an Ailesbury Rd development to in September. But smaller homes are apparently okay in Poppintree, for rapid-build houses, for homeless families.
As the Luas Red Line glides through Dublin’s city centre, it passes trash-strewn empty lots, vacant patches, and boarded-up buildings. Is it ever going to change?
