Government urged to refurbish vacant homes for Ukrainian refugees

Refugees from Ukraine enter the Republic of Moldova at Palanca-Maiaky-Udobne border crossing point between Moldova and Ukraine, on March 30. Picture: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP

The Government has been told to pay for the refurbishment of privately-owned vacant homes in order to meet the urgent housing need for thousands of arriving Ukrainian refugees.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien told a crisis summit of the construction and property industry that no options are off the table as the Government scrambles to find additional resources to meet demand.

A fund to bring vacant or older buildings up to standard was raised by the construction industry.

Mr O’Brien has asked industry leaders to come back within the next week with concrete proposals which could create housing for refugees as quickly as possible.

Sources said that, as well as the refurbishment fund, the Government will be pushed to:

• Use the Fair Deal nursing home scheme to release up to 8,000 homes;
• Change planning laws to speed up homebuilding;
• Make moves to encourage people to pledge the “low-hanging fruit” of holiday homes for refugees.

Irish Home Builders Association (IHBA) director James Benson said labour shortages are affecting construction, and refurbishing existing vacant stock would be less labour intensive than some home-building projects. He also said modular housing could provide “sustainable units” for decades.

He said that while the first phase of the humanitarian response has seen refugees housed in B&Bs and hotels, the next two phases should see the conversion of vacant properties and the building of new homes, and these phases should proceed at the same time.

“We need to look at the use of our existing and vacant stock,” said Mr Benson. 

Existing heritage buildings, convents, garda stations, nursing homes. We need to look at a combination of public and private builds that are being unused.”

He said key infrastructure such as water, power, and roads are often the “greatest impediment” to building projects, but that key infrastructure is already in place for existing vacant stock.

On modular housing, he said these units could take six to seven months to complete, and would offer “sustainable units” that would remain in place for up to 60 years.

Earlier, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman confirmed that mass accommodation centres could be put into use within the coming weeks.

“We’re not going to be able to accommodate everybody in hotels or even own-room accommodation," he said. "There may come a time when we need to use larger accommodation centres.

It’s not ideal, but again, shelter and safety are what we’re trying to offer Ukrainians when they come to our country.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has indicated she would personally like to see owners of private households, landlords, and owners of holiday homes receive a financial reward for providing accommodation to refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She confirmed the Government is considering “providing some form of financial assistance, be it to people in their own home, or people who have given up an entire property”.