Articles related to Affordable housing

In Rebuilding Ireland, the Department of Housing promised an affordable housing scheme would be finalised by late 2016. Here’s why that didn’t happen.

In 2017, emails and memos from officials at the Department of Public Expenditure suggest they were unconvinced of the need for affordable-housing schemes.

Councillors and local residents say the Dublin City Council effort to bring in a developer to build 640 homes on the site seems to be stalled. The council says it’s not.

The little street, long a cluster of affordable homes hosting students, artists and hardworking families, seems to be in the process of a change that is transforming it into a different kind of neighbourhood.

“We have seen a lot of cranes in the Docklands but not a lot of homes. Particularly affordable homes,” says Green Party Councillor Ciarán Cuffe.

Councillors want more clarity on fundraising for the new city library, the council says planned “affordable” homes at O’Devaney will be for sale (not for rent), and more.

As a major landowner, state-owned Córas Impair Éireann (CIÉ) is helping to shape the city. But is it acting in the interests of all?

“We are trying to lease the entire development to the government,” said Maurice Gillick of Platinum Land.

A “cost-rental” pilot project may deliver two-beds at a cost far below what’s on the market, says Housing Agency CEO John O’Connor.

This week’s cartoon, from illustrator Karen Vaughan.

The landowners lobbied for the change and told councillors they plan to develop affordable housing there. Some councillors worry they’ll just flip it once its value rises.

If it goes ahead, it would mean 50 or so homes through a cost-rental model.

With our friends from Banter, we organised a discussion about the social housing system, and the role it might play in easing the critical shortage of affordable housing in Dublin. If you didn’t make it to the event, you can listen to it here.

They already backed plans for 50 percent private housing on the site, but hope to rework that and make it 100-percent public housing.

At Monday’s monthly meeting, councillors questioned Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy on current policies – before moving on to their usual business.

At a special meeting, Dublin city councillors decided to cut the local property tax by more, rather than provide more city services.

Government LIHAF subsidies to private developers, meant in part to produce affordable housing, might produce a 0.5 percent discount on a €470,000 home.

Hugh Brennan says that the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance has the capacity to scale up.

Richard Florida, author of 2002’s “The Rise of the Creative Class”, is back with a follow-up that looks at soaring housing prices in the world’s most successful cities, and offers some solutions.

Plans for the Poolbeg SDZ would make 10% of 3,500 homes social housing. Councillors want to double or triple that, and add affordable housing too. They’re preparing for a showdown.

A project by developer Hines in Cherrywood, for example, got €15.19 million in funding, meant to encourage affordable housing, for which there is as yet no plan in place.

There’s a plan to build “affordable” housing on some council lands. But what does “affordable” mean, who would build it, and who would live there?

We are witnessing another round of finance-driven urban development, a fact which speaks to the current poverty of imagination and ambition among those who hold the levers of power.

Dublin City Council is set to discuss options today for working with private players to build homes on several council-owned plots. Councillors are wary of public-private partnerships and intent on construction of social and affordable housing.