Hundreds of tenants seek support from Limerick Council after ending of eviction ban
MORE than 200 tenants facing eviction in Limerick have contacted the local authority to request that it purchases the homes they are living in.
It comes following the lifting of the 'no fault' eviction ban last weekend, with the information being revealed at a special council meeting this Wednesday.
Following the ending of the moratorium on people being asked to leave their homes - which was enacted for the winter months - a scheme was launched by government, which gives local authorities the power to buy properties which are on the market and keep the occupiers from being removed.
It is this which has seen a spike in the number of people contacting the council for support, housing director Caroline Curley told councillors.
These will all be private tenants, some renting with the support of social support payments, others paying the full market rate.
In the case of tenants paying full rents, it will be the role of the national housing agency to seek the purchase of a property.
For those receiving social supports, it will be the council which will scope out whether it can buy a house.
During the course of the meeting, Ms Curley pointed to advice Limerick City and County Council has published on its website for tenants who have received a notice to quit.
"Most of the landlords are willing to sell their property to the local authority or to an approved housing body which is allowed for. So we are going through that process," she said.
Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) are private agencies which work with the council to provide affordable rented housing for people who cannot afford to pay private sector rents or buy their own homes.
Ms Curley conceded the local authority will miss its target of building 502 new social houses this year, saying: "at this point, we believe it will be 450," she said.
"But to give members some reassurance and comfort, looking at our housing delivery for last year, there were 700 allocations done between ourselves and the AHBs. For 2023, we are looking at 760 allocations to be done for people on the housing waiting list," she added.
This is significant, as many of those people renting using social supports at present will likely be on the waiting list for a council house, with close to 6,000 people in the queue across Limerick.
This Wednesday's special meeting was called by Sinn Fein's three councillors, alongside Social Democrats councillor Elisa O'Donovan plus Independents Eddie Ryan and Jerome Scanlan.
The motion put down by this group noted the comments by tenants' charity Threshold which predicts that "unprecedented" numbers of adults and children could become homeless as a result of the end of the moratorium.
It asked fellow councillors to write to government to urge them to reconsider the ending of the eviction ban, and instead, liaise with all local authorities to provide the resources required to increase housing supply.
However, at the start of the meeting, Fine Gael's council leader John Sheahan proposed a counter-motion, removing the call on government to reconsider ending the eviction ban.
It sparked anger among some taking part in the meeting, with Sinn Fein's council leader Sharon Benson accusing the ruling Fine Gael-Fianna Fail coalition on the authority of "shutting down democracy".
Former Fine Gael councillor Scanlan, now Independent, desctibed it as "a sad day for local democracy", and Labour's Conor Sheehan added: "This is not the way we should conduct our business. What sort of message does this send to people in insecure housing? It screams of callous indifference, and they should be ashamed of themselves."
Ultimately though, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail's supermajority on the council saw the counter-motion voted through by a margin of 25 to 11.
The two Green Party councillors Sasa Novak and Sean Hartigan also supported it.
Independent councillor John O'Donoghue abstained.
And there were 11 votes against, with all those that sought the meeting doing this. They were joined by Independent Fergus Kilcoyne, Labour councillors Sheahan, Joe Leddin and Elena Secas.
There was another special meeting scheduled for immediately after to discuss the County Development Plan. That was abandoned after Cllr Benson attempted to bring up the situation of the ending of the moratorium on evictions.
She then remained in the chamber in protest at not getting what she felt were sufficient answers from Mayor Francis Foley, who chaired both meetings.
Cllr Benson told Limerick Live she will not leave until she is given a proper explanation as to what happened from the first citizen.