Extra €20m made available for the homeless services
AN extra €20million was allocated to homeless services in yesterday’s Budget,
It was also announced that the Help to Buy scheme will be extended for two more years.
Delivering the Budget yesterday, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe told the Dáil: ‘The high cost of renting is a key concern for this Government.
‘In response, we have introduced Rent Pressure Zones and there are now 44 in operation throughout the State. In Budget 2020, I am providing almost €2million in additional funding to the Residential Tenancies Board [RTB] to support their increased powers to investigate and sanction non-compliance with Rent Pressure Zone measures.’
However, a leading property expert has said the Budget did ‘nothing’ for the struggling rental market. And according to housing charity Threshold, most of the money allocated for homeless aid will end up in the pockets of private accommodation providers.
Average rent across the country is at an all-time high of almost €1,400 a month amid a shortage of available properties.
And the chief executive of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers, Pat Davitt, criticised the Budget, saying: ‘It’s not going to incentivise anybody.
‘It’s like the Budget never happened for landlords, it looks like they were never even thought about or considered.
‘The landlords feed the market; if they don’t get into the market, there’s not going to be houses to rent,’ he said.
And John-Mark McCafferty, chief executive of Threshold, said: ‘Of the extra €20million allocated to homeless services in the Budget, we at Threshold envisage that the majority of this will go directly into the pockets of hoteliers and private accommodation providers, and will do little to help keep people in their homes.’
The charity welcomed the additional €80million to extend the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme for two years and the extra €2million allocated to the RTB to allow it to enforce Rent Pressure Zone regulations more efficiently.
However, it said it was ‘disappointed’ that there were no measures to reduce rents for those struggling in the private rented sector.
Mr McCafferty said: ‘While the €80million in additional funding for the HAP scheme is also welcome, just yesterday we saw that only 104 of the 907 three-bed properties advertised on Daft.ie were below the HAP caps.
‘Department of Housing figures earlier this month showed a further increase in family homelessness, with 1,726 families now homeless, including 3,848 children. Our frontline services are working flat out to keep families in their homes as winter approaches.’
Additional €80m for HAP scheme
It’s like another kick in the teeth... this Government seems to have no appreciation of the ordinary worker”
BOTH Rachel and Christopher are living at home with their respective mothers to save money for a home, but the two-year extension to the Help to Buy scheme is unlikely to help them.
‘I don’t think that’s enough time for us to get a deposit together,’ Rachel explained. ‘So unless something else comes down the road, we’re not going to benefit.
‘In fact, there’s nothing in this Budget that applies to my life.’ Rachel said the ‘extra teaching and special needs Assistants posts will only marginally help’, adding: ‘It’s great, of course, that there will be extra staff, but it’s hugely unfair they will come in at the lower rate of pay.
‘They’ll be delighted to get jobs but then they’ll start at schools and realise they’re getting paid a lot less money to do the exact same amount of work as many of the other teachers already there. I’ve been teaching for five years and I’ve noticed that our work rate has tripled, thanks to new measures around assessments, increased teaching plans and many more responsibilities.’ She had also hoped regulations about house prices in certain areas might have been introduced to help her stay in Dublin.
‘That’s probably a bit of an idealistic pipe dream,’ she said. ‘Our aim is to save enough for a house for about €300,000, but at the moment, even though we both have good jobs, it’s unlikely we’d get a mortgage for that amount, which will push us out of Dublin, to Meath or Kildare if we’re lucky. It’s not great to be still living at home when you’re nearly 30 and working full-time and there’s not a lot of hope on the horizon that we’ll get close to living where we really want to.
‘I know with Brexit coming they had to be conservative, but it really does feel like blue-collar workers get hit over and over again. Every Budget it’s like another kick in the teeth. This Government seems to have no appreciation of the ordinary worker.’