“People have much richer lives, and they’re much more textured, and deep and emotional, and full of care, and struggles and heartbreak,” author John Bissett says.
Pitched as a measure to speed housing construction, opposition politicians say it’s unlikely to help much. “A solution in search of a problem,” one called it.
The homes have gone through round after round of repairs in recent years. Meanwhile, there are thousands of households on the social housing list in the area.
Department of Housing figures show around 200 built in the Dublin City Council area in the first half of 2022 – but 138 of those weren’t finished until months later.
People waiting on them, stuck in precarious housing situations, are getting increasingly desperate, says People Before Profit Councillor Hazel de Nortúin. “It’s causing so much trauma.”
Peter McVerry Trust is in talks to buy the old James Weir Home for Nurses building for social housing, and the council looks set to take over the adjoining burial site.
The Housing Assistance Payment scheme is designed to mirror social housing, but HAP tenants are not always treated the same as those living in council-owned social homes.
The council says it is necessary to raise money to pay for community facilities for the hundreds of planned homes at St Michael’s Estate on Emmet Road.
