Homeless in 2 weeks - advice please

The_Conductor

ohohseven wrote: »

Didn't I hear in the news not so long ago that RA was being increased in Dublin ?

In certain limited circumstances Community Welfare Officers have been given leeway to make small increases in RA payments- over and above the limits- however, in the context of Dublin- they are still significantly below the open market rent levels.

The issue is- councils sold off their housing stock- and no longer have the means to house those who are unable to house themselves. They are looking to private sector (private rental accommodation) to provide this service- however, they don't want to pay the going rate. This would be fine- is supply wasn't so constrained. Why should any landlord accept a steep discount on their rent- when they can have a private tenant pay them the going rate- and not have to play piggy-in-the-middle between a RA tenant, the council, Social welfare and who-ever else decides to stick their oar in.........

Solution- build more housing stock- and remove the right of tenants to purchase council housing- or at very least stipulate that for every unit sold, 1.5 new units has to be added to the councils housing stock levels.

Scotland are in the same problem as Dublin at the moment- and have been taking some drastic steps- that we would do well to study.

firestarter51

Sjoh123 wrote: »

I spoke to the council and there are no houses to give out until the government build more there are people in homeless shelters over a year now and that's normal. Many are housed in b&b as there is no where to put ppl. Il move to my parents for now with two of my children as it would be best for the kids rather than a shelter

if your on rent allowance for 2 years or more im sure there is a new scheme you can get on called RAS
someone in my estate is on the scheme, they pay the council an amount of rent based on income and the council pay the landlord direct, you then get a five year lease
i think this is preferable to rent allowance as some people are getting rent allowance and spending it and leaving rent unpaid and moving on leaving the landlord with a debt he cannot collect

might be worth checking out for your situation, explore all options as when you move back with your parents your no longer in need of housing according to the council, as far as i know
good luck anyway whatever you decide to do

fussyonion

firestarter51 wrote: »

if your on rent allowance for 2 years or more im sure there is a new scheme you can get on called RAS
someone in my estate is on the scheme, they pay the council an amount of rent based on income and the council pay the landlord direct, you then get a five year lease
i think this is preferable to rent allowance as some people are getting rent allowance and spending it and leaving rent unpaid and moving on leaving the landlord with a debt he cannot collect

might be worth checking out for your situation, explore all options as when you move back with your parents your no longer in need of housing according to the council, as far as i know
good luck anyway whatever you decide to do

RAS is not a new scheme and for a lot of Landlords, it's no better than Rent Allowance.

Why should LL's take a reduced rent..which is what the Council pay..AND have no say in who moves into their house?

firestarter51

fussyonion wrote: »

RAS is not a new scheme and for a lot of Landlords, it's no better than Rent Allowance.

Why should LL's take a reduced rent..which is what the Council pay..AND have no say in who moves into their house?

It is relatively new compared to rent allowance which nearly everyone is aware of, how does your rant help the op in anyway, she asked for help not a debate
The person I know on the scheme met the landlord and agreed to the scheme and the landlord got the rent he wanted for a five year term in an estate full of empty houses up for rent, everyone was happy

Tasden

The_Conductor wrote: »

In certain limited circumstances Community Welfare Officers have been given leeway to make small increases in RA payments- over and above the limits- however, in the context of Dublin- they are still significantly below the open market rent levels.

.

And, I don't have a link for this but I work closely with CWOs and agencies like threshold, apparently the discretionary payment is usually just paid for 13 weeks so doesn't really help at all long term

LordNorbury

Sorry to hear about the OP and her situation, it really has angered me this morning reading it. I'm starting to wonder is the day soon approaching in this country where we will be seeing US style trailer parks being created, in order to alleviate or deal with what is clearly an upcoming crisis, if it is not already a crisis?

It really sickens my hole reading these stories I have to say, and I can never get my head around how government policy has failed to deal with the provision of affordable accommodation basically since the 1990's, because greedy vested interests have always stood in the way of affordable property in this country and affordable accommodation. It seems to me that we are still cleaning up the mess after the last outbreak of national greed in this country made the price of property unaffordable for many people. House prices have fallen by 50%, yet here we are back in this place again where greed is rampant again.

Stay strong OP, and I hope you find a solution to the problem soon.

alex03

I am struck by how Irish people despised Cromwell for displacing people with his "To Hell or to Connaught" yet have no problem doing the same ourselves now. People aren't expecting to live in luxury estates or the likes, but effectively all rent allowance recipients are being forced out of the city.

Blanchardstown (Dublin 15) would be traditionally a cheaper place where people could afford to rent. The rent caps applicable are the Fingal County Council rates, which are the lowest of any of the Dublin Council rates. The rent cap for a family with two children is €850 pm / 900 pm for three children.

I've done a search today for a 2 bed in Dublin 15 on Daft.ie with max. rent €850 and there were absolutely no properties.

daft.ie/dublin-city/houses-to-rent/dublin-15/?s%5Barea_type%5D=on&s%5Bmxp%5D=850&s%5Bmnb%5D=2&s%5Badvanced%5D=1&rental_tab_name=advanced-sf

I don't blame Landlords for trying to maximise their return, but we should never have had a situation where the state relied on the private rental market to solve the problem of social housing. There is a rush to the bottom with ever decreasing wages yet rents continue to rise. Many people are being pushed out of paid employment because many wages don't cover the cost of private rents or childcare and this in itself is increasing the need for social housing.

The renting bubble is reigniting the housing market again and we are already seeing the start of an insane property bubble in Dublin.

Families with children are now being asked to move out of traditional working class areas and outside urban areas away from support networks that they may have. It is creating another welfare trap/dependency situation as it is moving people further away from ever being able to return to the jobs market. Many people could work and contribute to society if there was some housing /childcare supports. Our system is an all or nothing that creates welfare dependency.

I am currently working with a lone parent. Her daughter is 8. She was getting reduced One Family Payment, some maintenance from the Father, reduced rent allowance (600 per month) and was working part-time and paying child care. She was struggling and asked her boss for a raise. She got €400 per month. Her rent allowance has just been reviewed and she has now lost all rent allowance, so she is worse off now then before the raise, although she is now entitled to €20 pw FIS. Her ex never paid maintenance this month, so she went to rent allowance and asked them to re-evaluate based on her actual income and was told that as there is a court order in place, they will assess as if she's getting it, regardless of whether she gets it or not (perhaps this is the reason why many don't bother with court orders?). After she pays her full rent, childcare and transport to work, she is well below basic SWA rates per week. She is being forced out of the job force and will cost the state significantly more. It is a trap that is costing the state more. Unless, we can provide secure social housing many will face the same.

If people had access to safe affordable housing, they could work in minimum wage jobs, but you can't do this if you lose rent allowance. A minimum wage job would not support rent etc. Successive governments have failed in regard to housing and it is a cause of our international uncompetitiveness, we need higher wages to pay our ludicrous housing costs. This is the cause of the problem, not people who are in need of rent allowance.

A few weeks ago, I was with a single mother of a 5 year old who was in Fingal Co. Council offices and was homeless. She was there with her bags. She had presented weeks before, but was told they could not help her until she was actually homeless. That day she had no where else to go. At 3.30pm, the housing service closed and they had no shelter/ hostel for her and son that night. She was told she could call emergency homeless service at 4.30 pm that evening, which she did. They told her only accommodation available was for single people, not families but that if she called back at 10.30 pm they would see if anything was available then. I watched a 5 year old boy crying to his Mammy that he was scared and there was no where they could go.

Housing needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency and turning on people who are dependent on housing support is directing the anger at the wrong people.

LordNorbury

alex03 wrote: »

Unless, we can provide secure social housing many will face the same.

If people had access to safe affordable housing, they could work in minimum wage jobs, but you can't do this if you lose rent allowance. A minimum wage job would not support rent etc.

This is where we are at now today with Ireland Inc, there is a petty mindedness, a sheer thickness, and a profound sense of gombeenism that goes to the very centre of Irish political thinking, that I personally have always found to be actually quite frightening.

If you want to do something fairly fundamental these days, in terms of us apparently being a first world fully functioning and advanced democracy, when I say "something fundamental", I mean like if you want to put a roof over your head for you and your family, the most basic human need of all one could argue, next to eating food and drinking water, if you try to do that in this country today, you are treated as if you are somehow or another looking for something extravagant?!? It's like as if you are actually being audacious, extravagant, or outrageous on some level, if you have a notion in your head that you would like to live your life in a way that does not involve you living out of your parents boxroom until you are 40.

That's the scabby, petty, woodenheaded, thick, backward, highly unproductive, ultimately self defeating, socially messed up mentality that we have in this country right now, which we have allowed to now become central government policy.

There can be no doubt I think that the next step will be US style trailer parks, that will be ushered in fairly soon under the convenient flag of: "an immediate yet temporary solution to this urgent crisis"...

We really need to wake up in this country I think and very urgently re-access where we are and where we are going with all of this. I know friends who are extremely hard working, one in particular is a nurse/midwife, her rent for an apartment that she shares with another girl, is 850 a month after an increase that she was recently advised would be coming into effect. Her tenancy has now become unaffordable, yet she is working every hour God sends, everything she earns over 32,800 Euro is taxed at 41%, but at the end of the month (before her recent rent increase!), she hasn't a cent to her name.

When the day comes where hard working people can't afford a roof over their heads and are expected to pay an effective tax rate of between 50 and 60%, yet are being expected to move back into a spare room in their parents house, you have to ask what is going on.

salamanca22

mdolly123 wrote: »

Refuse to move and buy time, this puts the onus on landlord etc to begin legal proceedings to evict, in the meantime get on to your TD and local housing authority.

Or how about you don't advocate breaking tenancy law?

athtrasna

salamanca22 wrote: »

Or how about you don't advocate breaking tenancy law?

Precisely. The landlord is providing a service, they bear no responsibility for the situation the tenant is in. They are entitled to charge market rate for their property.

MouseTail

salamanca22 wrote: »

Or how about you don't advocate breaking tenancy law?

Or wrecking someone, who is already in a vulnerable positions chances of re-entering the private housing sector due to a bad reference.

salamanca22

athtrasna wrote: »

Precisely. The landlord is providing a service, they bear no responsibility for the situation the tenant is in. They are entitled to charge market rate for their property.

As a tenant and not a landlord myself I have no problem with saying it is not the landlords problem what the tenants personal situation is.

As you said, they are providing a service and deserve to be paid a fair amount for that. The fair amount being the market rate. If the tenant can't afford it then a new one will be found that can afford it.

And before people go off on their bleeding heart rants saying the landlord should have a heart bla bla bla. Do you know what the landlords circumstances are? Maybe he needs the extra rent to afford the mortgage.

iwillhtfu

I've been hearing so many of these stories the last while. I do feel for the kids in these situations.

I have too ask the question though, whatever happened to going out and getting a job/mortgage and buying a home and raise a family within your means?

I appreciate op you're a single mother and this would be extraordinarily difficult for a lone parent. Did you have a house/mortgage before you started a family.

I know a number of people who turn trying to get a council house into a full time job and a way of life it must really be a sad way to live, then when rents go up and no houses become available through the council they're up in arms and saying what about my kids!! The kids you decided to bring into this world without a stable foundation??

It's almost always the same story I'm not leaving my local area I grew up here.. blah blah blah I know one girl who refuses to even leave a particular road.

I myself live a long way from where I grew up, would I like to be back there? Yes, that's where my kids grandparents are both sets. We wanted to have a family though so we bought a house we could afford.

Sorry for the rant I'm just sick to death of particular people on welfare who aren't genuinely in need bitching and moaning about the position they've put themselves and their kids in.

Those in genuine need should be put to the top of the list not those who've made a lifestyle out of not working and receiving hand outs from the welfare.

LordNorbury

LordNorbury wrote: »

This is where we are at now today with Ireland Inc, there is a petty mindedness, a sheer thickness, and a profound sense of gombeenism that goes to the very centre of Irish political thinking, that I personally have always found to be actually quite frightening.

If you want to do something fairly fundamental these days, in terms of us apparently being a first world fully functioning and advanced democracy, when I say "something fundamental", I mean like if you want to put a roof over your head for you and your family, the most basic human need of all one could argue, next to eating food and drinking water, if you try to do that in this country today, you are treated as if you are somehow or another looking for something extravagant?!? It's like as if you are actually being audacious, extravagant, or outrageous on some level, if you have a notion in your head that you would like to live your life in a way that does not involve you living out of your parents boxroom until you are 40.

That's the scabby, petty, woodenheaded, thick, backward, highly unproductive, ultimately self defeating, socially messed up mentality that we have in this country right now, which we have allowed to now become central government policy.

There can be no doubt I think that the next step will be US style trailer parks, that will be ushered in fairly soon under the convenient flag of: "an immediate yet temporary solution to this urgent crisis"...

We really need to wake up in this country I think and very urgently re-access where we are and where we are going with all of this. I know friends who are extremely hard working, one in particular is a nurse/midwife, her rent for an apartment that she shares with another girl, is 850 a month after an increase that she was recently advised would be coming into effect. Her tenancy has now become unaffordable, yet she is working every hour God sends, everything she earns over 32,800 Euro is taxed at 41%, but at the end of the month (before her recent rent increase!), she hasn't a cent to her name.

When the day comes where hard working people can't afford a roof over their heads and are expected to pay an effective tax rate of between 50 and 60%, yet are being expected to move back into a spare room in their parents house, you have to ask what is going on.

Firstly, 850 for a room in a two bed is way above normal, meaning she's either overpaying or is living somewhere that is way above what she can afford. The vast majority of people pay less than half of what she's paying for a room, why do you expect sympathy?

Secondly, you take aim at the high rate of tax - what do you think pays for all of these free homes? Where do you think the money would come from to pay for EXTRA free or vastly reduced housing?

LordNorbury

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

Firstly, 850 for a room in a two bed is way above normal, meaning she's either overpaying or is living somewhere that is way above what she can afford. The vast majority of people pay less than half of what she's paying for a room, why do you expect sympathy?

Secondly, you take aim at the high rate of tax - what do you think pays for all of these free homes? Where do you think the money would come from to pay for EXTRA free or vastly reduced housing?

What do you mean she is living somewhere way above where she can afford? This is more of it, this uniquely Irish petty mindedness that dictates that we should work in the Coombe Hospital but yet at the same time live in Kinnegad?!? It is this very lack of vision that I am talking about, that only the wealthy, or else those with access to large capital/wealth via their parents, basically that only our current day ascendancy class, that should expect to be able to live in the capital, the city that they work in, anyone else who wishes to live in any kind of close proximity to their place of work, is seen as acting above their station, having notions about themselves, or is seen as making some sort of an unreasonable demand upon society?!?

How come we appear to be the only country in the world that I know of, I mean the only supposedly advanced first world developed economy, not like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh or Calcutta, that is simply unable, over a period of the last 20 years, to manage to provide or to create the conditions for the provision of, affordable, quality accommodation?

How come this is something that we can't accomplish, no matter what government is in place or no matter what economic conditions are prevailing, this fairly simple task to my mind, just seems to be completely beyond our grasp?

makeorbrake

LordNorbury wrote: »

What do you mean she is living somewhere way above where she can afford? This is more of it, this uniquely Irish petty mindedness that dictates that we should work in the Coombe Hospital but yet at the same time live in Kinnegad?!

It's not a case of working people living in Kinnegad (unless that is their own decision). However, if it's at the tax payers expense, then move out to Kinnegad or where-ever - and move back in when employment found again. There's a serious surplus of housing stock for small $ - that is seriously underutilized outside of the Dublin commuter belt. This is an opportunity to make use of same.

LordNorbury

LordNorbury wrote: »

What do you mean she is living somewhere way above where she can afford? This is more of it, this uniquely Irish petty mindedness that dictates that we should work in the Coombe Hospital but yet at the same time live in Kinnegad?!? It is this very lack of vision that I am talking about, that only the wealthy, or else those with access to large capital/wealth via their parents, basically that only our current day ascendancy class, that should expect to be able to live in the capital, the city that they work in, anyone else who wishes to live in any kind of close proximity to their place of work, is seen as acting above their station, having notions about themselves, or is seen as making some sort of an unreasonable demand upon society?!?

How come we appear to be the only country in the world that I know of, I mean the only supposedly advanced first world developed economy, not like Zimbabwe, Bangladesh or Calcutta, that is simply unable, over a period of the last 20 years, to manage to provide or to create the conditions for the provision of, affordable, quality accommodation?

How come this is something that we can't accomplish, no matter what government is in place or no matter what economic conditions are prevailing, this fairly simple task to my mind, just seems to be completely beyond our grasp?

Are you for real? She's paying 850 per month for a room! There's one of two things going on here, as I said earlier:

a. She's overpaying for substandard accommodation (at that price).

b. She's living in accommodation that is well above what she can afford.

Your thinking is so reeking of méfeinism...Why wouldn't she move somewhere cheaper?

Do you think she "deserves" to live where she is? Why is she more deserving than anyone else? If it was affordable accommodation provided by the government, she wouldn't be living in it anyway, it would be all going to people like the OP who don't work.

She's a single person (as far as living arrangements go, at least) earning more than *most* people, how far do you want us to bend for her? If she deserves to live where she wants, what about everyone on less than 30k? What about the people on minimum wage?

My guess is that you won't have an answer for 90% of my questions. You might call me some sort of Cromwell lover, though. I prefer realist.

martinsvi

as a tax payer I don't want people on rent allowances to be taking up central locations in Dublin while I have to commute my ass out of Kildare every day simply because there are not enough properties available on the market in Dublin. Let's be honest, there is a quite a lot of RA beneficiaries who will never work a day in their life, so why pay for them living in Dublin? As cynical it my sound, kicking them out and freeing up space in inner city Dublin might actually bring the prices down so people who actually do make their own living are able to take a breath again

MouseTail

LordNorbury wrote: »

What do you mean she is living somewhere way above where she can afford? This is more of it, this uniquely Irish petty mindedness that dictates that we should work in the Coombe Hospital but yet at the same time live in Kinnegad?!?

He means that you have picked a very bad example, one which does your argument no favours. €850 for a room in a house share in Dublin is very overpriced. It is not the market rate.

ComputerKing

LordNorbury wrote: »

When the day comes where hard working people can't afford a roof over their heads and are expected to pay an effective tax rate of between 50 and 60%, yet are being expected to move back into a spare room in their parents house, you have to ask what is going on.

Oh but how wrong are you just because someone is hardworking doesn't mean that they should be able to chose to live in someplace they can't afford. The reason we have this issue is because of peoples selfish self entitled attitudes you have absolutely no right to complain that you are getting evicted because you can't afford to live in the area you want to live in and claim your homeless. There are other areas that have cheeper rent and just because you could in the past afford to live in this are doesn't mean you have a God given right to live there now.

Also the high tax rate isn't just effecting the poor and disadvantaged. There are others of us who have to pay nearly 50% tax on our earnings as well. Many of us don't receive claim rent allowance or large amounts of social welfare as well so we are the ones really suffering seeing little return for the high amounts of tax that we pay.

ComputerKing

martinsvi wrote: »

as a tax payer I don't want people on rent allowances to be taking up central locations in Dublin while I have to commute my ass out of Kildare every day simply because there are not enough properties available on the market in Dublin. Let's be honest, there is a quite a lot of RA beneficiaries who will never work a day in their life, so why pay for them living in Dublin? As cynical it my sound, kicking them out and freeing up space in inner city Dublin might actually bring the prices down so people who actually do make their own living are able to take a breath again

I have to agree with you here many hard working tax payers are paying 50% tax and yet can't afford to live in central Dublin as it's full of people claiming RA and not working a day pushing hardworking people out of the market.

LordNorbury

MouseTail wrote: »

He means that you have picked a very bad example, one which does your argument no favours. €850 for a room in a house share in Dublin is very overpriced. It is not the market rate.

You have no idea where my friend lives in terms of location, the standard of her accommodation. But my point has been, and remains, that her accommodation is by no means outlandish, nothing grand about it or extravagant, apart from the location maybe having a reputation for being a bit posh, but the Irish gombeen psyche says she should be living out in Navan or somewhere and commute in and out every day. Her rent has been jacked up hugely in a very short space of time, I find this completely unacceptable in a country that calls itself a first world modern democracy, it simply isn't healthy to have rents rising massively like this in a very collective sense in a short timeframe, in a country where real wage income has been falling every year for at least the last 7 years due to wages being depressed and taxes having increased during that time. People shouldn't have to live like this, it isn't healthy for a society, seriously, have we learnt nothing in this country in the last 15 years???

MouseTail

LordNorbury wrote: »

You have no idea where my friend lives in terms of location, the standard of her accommodation. But my point has been, and remains, that her accommodation is by no means outlandish, nothing grand about it or extravagant, apart from the location maybe having a reputation for being a bit posh, but the Irish gombeen psyche says she should be living out in Navan or somewhere and commute in and out every dayl?

You are missing the point. No one is saying she should be living in Navan, she could get a decent houseshare within walking or cycling distance to work for considerably less than what she is paying.

LordNorbury

LordNorbury wrote: »

You have no idea where my friend lives in terms of location, the standard of her accommodation. But my point has been, and remains, that her accommodation is by no means outlandish, nothing grand about it or extravagant, apart from the location maybe having a reputation for being a bit posh, but the Irish gombeen psyche says she should be living out in Navan or somewhere and commute in and out every day. Her rent has been jacked up hugely in a very short space of time, I find this completely unacceptable in a country that calls itself a first world modern democracy, it simply isn't healthy to have rents rising massively like this in a very collective sense in a short timeframe, in a country where real wage income has been falling every year for at least the last 7 years due to wages being depressed and taxes having increased during that time. People shouldn't have to live like this, it isn't healthy for a society, seriously, have we learnt nothing in this country in the last 15 years???

That's some jump, from living in a "posh" area in Dublin to being forced down the country? How about any of the other thousand non "posh" areas in Dublin? Hell, what about the areas right next to the "posh" ones, 5 minutes down the road? Or do they not exist? Is it either upmarket accommodation or off down the country or homeless in la la land?

Seriously, what exactly is your gripe? Your points make absolutely no sense when held up to even the slightest scrutiny, and essentially boil down to "I want" "I deserve" "Because I'm worth it".

Again, you are against tax increases - how do we pay for this extra subsidised housing?

Why should your friend be subsidised by people who earn less than her to live in a "posh" area when they themselves can't afford it? I'm genuinely flabbergasted.

martinsvi

LordNorbury wrote: »

Her rent has been jacked up hugely in a very short space of time, I find this completely unacceptable in a country that calls itself a first world modern democracy, it simply isn't healthy to have rents rising massively like this ina very collective sense in a short timeframe

you like it or not, this is EXACTLY what first world modern democracy looks like. There's not enough capital flowing in to support new developments, leaving the existing owners practically without competition on huge demand. And this is how things will stay.. people don't fancy repaying their mortgages, government generally tolerates it, there's no one stupid enough out there to be investing into Ireland's housing market any more...

The_Conductor

Guys- lets calm down and be rational towards one another here. Once you start personalising your posts- positions become polarised, and it becomes almost impossible to hold a discussion- or to offer valid advice to the OP.

Calm down. Stop personalising your posts. If you personalise your posts- you loose the right to throw a strop when someone makes a personal comment back to you- so don't even go there.

This is a bit of a friendly advice from one of your moderators- I don't like the way this thread is going- two people have earned themselves infractions- behave in a reasonable manner, cop on, and keep on-topic (and within the rules governing this forum).

Regards,

The_Conductor

LordNorbury

Rojomcdojo wrote: »

That's some jump, from living in a "posh" area in Dublin to being forced down the country? How about any of the other thousand non "posh" areas in Dublin? Hell, what about the areas right next to the "posh" ones, 5 minutes down the road? Or do they not exist? Is it either upmarket accommodation or off down the country or homeless in la la land?

Seriously, what exactly is your gripe? Your points make absolutely no sense when held up to even the slightest scrutiny, and essentially boil down to "I want" "I deserve" "Because I'm worth it".

Again, you are against tax increases - how do we pay for this extra subsidised housing?

Why should your friend be subsidised by people who earn less than her to live in a "posh" area when they themselves can't afford it? I'm genuinely flabbergasted.

I don't have a gripe, I'm making a very simple point, which is that we have a downright riduculous attitude to property in this country. Am I imagining that hundreds of thousands of people who were brought up in Dublin, had to move out to places like Drogheda, Navan, Kells, Naas, and all these other satellite towns in neighboring counties, during the boom, because due to a supply and demand problem with property in Dublin that was carefully and cutely managed by those who has a vested interest in banking and building development, that this supply and demand problem, that drove the price of property assets to insanely high levels, then set the scene for a property asset price collapse that now holds the world record for all property price collapses on earth ever?

And yet here we are back at the very same place, a huge supply and demand problem, but because we don't have the availability of credit in the domestic economy, private sector industry is prevented from acting as it normally would, to bring supply and demand back into equilibrium.

What is wrong with asking the fairly reasonable question on thread, why do we tolerate this way of doing things in this country? This small minded and completely petty way we have of looking at people who want to buy a house or in the current case, rent a house, why do we not see that affordable housing is simply necessary for an economy to function and grow?

It really irks me that some of the landlord class in this country are people who have been granted massive forbearance by our banking system over the last few years, I know two property owners or "landlords" as they wish to be known as, who are over a year in arrears on their investment mortgages but are trousering the rent from these same investment properties, these are the same people who are now at the very centre of the cause of our property crash when back in the Celtic Tiger, the same taxi driving property investor was standing in the queue pricing people out of the market back in 2002-2007, driving up the price of property by acquiring multiple properties when others in the queue just wanted a home to live in.

We seem to be at a place now where the same greedy property obsessed gombeens who caused our last economic collapse, are being let run amok on the same people they priced out of the market within the last 10 years.

To add to the debate and the current thread subject, emergency legislation should be brought in for investors who are more than 3 months in arrears on an investment mortgage to have the repossession of that property fast tracked and put back on the market immediately and any such houses that are repossessed in this manner should be protected from investors, houses are primarily for living in, not for speculating upon, and that I believe is where we need to get back to in this country, we need to go back to the very basics, the simple fundamentals.

Del2005

LordNorbury wrote: »

To add to the debate and the current thread subject, emergency legislation should be brought in for investors who are more than 3 months in arrears on an investment mortgage to have the repossession of that property fast tracked and put back on the market immediately and any such houses that are repossessed in this manner should be protected from investors, houses are primarily for living in, not for speculating upon, and that I believe is where we need to get back to in this country, we need to go back to the very basics, the simple fundamentals.

If investors don't buy properties then there will nothing to rent. Also selling a rental means that it'll most likely be bought be a private resident and then taken off the rental market making it even harder to find a place to rent.

And everyone in mortgage arrears should be dealt with not just investors. There are plenty of people living in houses they can't afford, and don't need the space, that could be used for people who do need them. We can't just pick and choose what defaulters to hit, although we are doing that.

shruikan2553

While I do agree that there should be more done to provide more housing in Dublin to reduce prices, if you are unable to live in an area then there are cheaper places to live elsewhere. Sure you may end up in another county but if you want the state to pay for it then you need to be prepared to not live in the area you want.

The_Conductor

In addition- we need to seriously consider the construction of far higher density- but still family friendly- accommodation. That is apartments- much larger than at present- and with open spaces and play areas for children.

All of this- is down the road though- currently- the only real option for the OP- aside from chasing the father of the children for accommodation (which she is entitled to do)- is to move back in with her parents.