Housing minister says he will do what he can to help Bantry woman, 88, facing homelessness

Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins with Bantry resident Jennifer Marley, who is facing homelessness in a matter of weeks.

Housing minister James Browne has said his department is exploring what can be done to help an 88-year-old Bantry resident who is facing homelessness.

Jennifer Marley received a notice to quit and registered for social housing some time ago. She is also actively seeking assistance from Cork County Council.

But with just weeks until she must vacate her home, no suitable accommodation has been offered.

There are concerns if no solution is found before Ms Marley has to move out at the end of July, she faces either moving into emergency homeless accommodation or a nursing home, despite the fact she is capable of living independently.

Addressing Ms Marley's situation, Mr Browne said the Department of Housing was contacting Cork County Council to see what measures could be put in place.

Mr Browne noted "significant funding" had been provided to local authorities around the tenant-in-situ, scheme with a request to prioritise older people among other vulnerable groups.

Speaking at the launch of new cost rental apartments in Tallaght, Mr Browne said the Government wanted to build more social and cost rental homes for older people "to have that sense of safety, that security".

Increase in landlords selling up

Ms Marley's situation, which arose as her landlord is selling the property, has come to public attention as property advisers DNG warned of a sharp increase in the number of landlords exiting the market after the Government announced changes to the rental sector.

DNG chief executive Keith Lowe expected the sales of investment properties to spike in the short to medium term as landlords exit the sector and, as a result, tenants are likely to see less rental stock available, as well as higher rents.

Rejecting this, Mr Browne said it was too early to draw conclusions about what landlords may or may not be doing in response to the recently announced measures around rent pressure zones.

He said landlords had been exiting the market in quite considerable numbers over the last number of years. Some of these were because of the existing situation around rent pressure zonnes, he said.

"We need to encourage landlords to stay in the market. You would always have a certain amount of churn," said Mr Browne.

"The Residential Tenancies Board shows more landlords actually registering now, an element of that will be greater enforcement from the RTB, which is really cracking down on landlords who are not registered. But again it is all about supply, we need to get more properties into the market and that is what we are all working towards."