Housing charity calls for rental sector strategy

Housing charity Threshold has said the Government needs to urgently introduce a national strategy on private rented housing so as to keep more families from becoming homeless.

The organisation said the housing situation had been “transformed” due to the economic crash, with more and more households on the brink of homelessness due to soaring rental costs.

Threshold published its annual report yesterday and said that, last year, it was “not uncommon” for some clients to be facing increases in rent of up to 40%.

Chief executive Bob Jordan said a 10% increase in urban rent supplement limits in June of last year had done little to stem the tide.

“Safety nets have disappeared during the economic downturn and many families now face the same risk of homelessness as single people,” he said.

Threshold claimed many tenants were now “caught in the crossfire” between landlords and bank-appointed receivers, while the report also highlighted problems with illegal deposit retention, substandard accommodation, and issues with leases, among other concerns.

The report also focused on the decade since the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, pointing out that deposit retention has been the single largest issue for people contacting it over the past decade — accounting for 27,000 queries, including 1,930 last year.

Illegal evictions rose last year to 651, its highest annual level since 2009, while client contacts regarding living standards and repairs was at its second-highest level in a decade, at 2,098. There were 580 contacts last year regarding rent arrears.

Senator Aideen Hayden, also the chairwoman of Threshold, said the private rental sector was “no longer fit for purpose”.

The report states: “We are no longer a nation of homeowners and the private rented sector is the only housing option for many people in our country, with one in five families now renting from a private landlord.”

Threshold said measures need to be implemented immediately, including:

- Changing rent regulation measures in the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to provide certainty regarding the rate of increase in rents;

- A review of rent supplement limits in line with market rent levels, with payment in advance rather than in arrears;

- Delivery on the government commitment to a deposit protection scheme, as well as quicker roll-out of the Housing Assistance Payment and facilitating the payment of deposits through exceptional needs payments.

Meanwhile, the Peter McVerry Trust and Saint Gobain, a global building materials supplier, announced that a building in Dublin 8 with six apartments has been refurbished thanks to a €100,000 donation by St Gobain.

It is expected that as many as 120 people a year could benefit from having the building available, with the Peter McVerry Trust calling on other firms to follow St Gobain’s example and contribute directly to efforts to fight homelessness.

It came as Focus Ireland warned that another 42 families became homeless in Dublin in November.

Focus Ireland said the Government must raise rent supplement payments and increase rent regulation immediately to prevent more families from slipping into homelessness.