Dublin City Council is hoping to purchase 250 homes this year under one of the Government's key schemes to tackle the expected "tsunami" of homelessness, a Council official has said.
The target for the Tenant in Situ scheme, which sees local authorities buy properties from landlord's evicting their tenants, is 200 homes below the allocation set by the Government. The lifting of the eviction ban means more than 7,000 households are facing homelessness with eviction dates due in the coming months.
Dublin is disproportionately affected as the figures show almost half of the Notices to Quit issued in the last three months of 2022 were in Dublin. Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien previously expanded the Tenant in Situ scheme to allow for 1,500 purchases nationwide and 450 in DCC - the country's local authority most severely impacted by homelessness.
Read more: Homeless tent-dwellers move from Phoenix Park ahead of Joe Biden's visit
A Council report showed just 12 homes were purchased in the first three months of this year with 278 more active inquiries at varying different levels of progress. There were 81 inquiries at the Sale Agreed and Conveyance stage, 52 at the Valuation and Offer level, 46 properties at the inspection stage and 99 at Initial Enquiry and Tenant Check stage.
From enquiry to acquisition, it can take from "four to six months", Council official Aisling Browne told councillors. She said: "We could be well into the 250 [by the end of the year] hopefully. We may need to engage with other solicitors to get the conveyance moving.
"We would be well over the 200 anyway." Ms Browne added that extra resources have been made available to the scheme and more will be added if further "blockages" are found.
She said: "We have seen a steady increase in Tenant in Situ inquiries since the last quarter of 2022. We reached a peak of inquiries at the end of March when on Monday we received 26 new inquiries.
"At the moment, our systems and processes are working well. We have had additional staff resources added to the team and we have been assured that if we find additional blockages in our procedures that there will be additional staff made available. The city valuers are prioritising valuations for these acquisitions and we now have two outside solicitor firms working on conveyancing."
Ms Browne warned councillors high-earners are also at risk of becoming homeless for the first time due to the state of the rental market. She said: "I know you [Cllr James Geoghegan] said about people who are over the income for social housing - they rarely end up homeless. However, that may have been in previous times when there was plenty of privately rented property out there to rent.
"At the moment on Daft.ie, regardless of you income, you would struggle to find private rented [accommodation] for any income level."
READ NEXT:
Teen girl rushed to Beaumont Hospital after two friends die in Galway tree collision
Bank holiday 2023: The six remaining public holidays in Ireland and if you're entitled to a day off
Dublin weather: Met Eireann's numerous warnings as Ireland braces for gale force winds
To get the latest news to your inbox, sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter.
