Welcoming the publication of the new Government Housing plan, ‘Housing for All’, COPE Galway have described this plan as critical to the lives of many people who are experiencing the negative effects of the current housing crisis.
“The provision of additional new build social housing is vital to addressing the plight of the many households who are on social housing waiting lists across the country and most especially here in Galway,” said Martin O’Connor of COPE Galway.
“It is crucial that this target of 90,000 social houses are new build units and that these are delivered on time as set out in the plan. Our local housing authorities are central to the delivery of these new houses and they need to be resourced and supported by Government to meet these targets,” he said.
The Housing for All plan pledges to build 9,500 houses of the over-10,000 new social homes per year during the next decade as part of achieving an overall target of 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030.
COPE Galway is particularly welcoming of the specific commitment to the delivery of new build social housing units. Mr O’Connor expressed concern about the continuing overreliance on the private rental sector to meet housing need.
“Social housing need must be met through social housing new build provision. We are seeing first-hand the inability and unsuitability of the private rental market to meet the housing needs of so many in our communities with unaffordable rents in many instances and people being evicted and ending up homeless on an ongoing basis’ said Mr O’Connor.
“The July 2021 homelessness figures published by the Department of Housing in the past week showed a worrying trend towards a growth in homelessness across the country, showing 280 adults and 154 children living in emergency accommodation in the western region.
“The Housing for All plan explicitly identifies the eradication of homelessness as one of the Government’s policy objectives, something we in COPE Galway very much welcome,’ said Mr O’Connor. “We are particularly pleased to see a target of 1,200 Housing First occupancies over the next five years as part of this plan.”
Martin O’Connor concluded by noting that the Central Statistics Office figures, published this week report that for the first half of 2021, there were 9,000 new housing units completed, with a forecast of 22,000 for the full year.
“This is in the context of around 34,000 units needing to be completed annually for the foreseeable future, in order to meet demand according to CSO. This gives you a sense of the challenge which Housing for All has to overcome,” he added.
