There has been an outpouring of anger by elected representatives as new figures reveal that more than one hundred households have been evicted into homelessness in the South Dublin County Council area in 2023. The figures were released by South Dublin County Council following a question submitted by People Before Profit Councillor Madeleine Johansson.
South Dublin County Council confirmed that there had been 116 new presentations to the Homeless Unit because of Notices to Quit from landlords from January to end of May 2023. It was also confirmed that only 4 properties had been purchased in the Palmerstown/North Clondalkin/Lucan area under the tenant-in-situ scheme. 48 landlords in the area have expressed an interest in selling their property to the council with a tenant in situ.
Councillor Madeleine Johansson commented: “It’s absolutely outrageous that more than a hundred households have been evicted into homelessness by private landlords. These are families and individuals who are now in emergency accommodation with no real prospect of finding permanent accommodation.
“I’m myself at risk of homelessness since I received a Notice to Quit from my landlord last October so I know the stress and trauma that these people are going through. It’s a disgrace that successive Fianna Fail and Fine Gael governments have refused to build public housing and relied on the private market for housing. This policy has completely failed for ordinary people while lining the pockets of landlords and developers.”
People Before Profit TD for Dublin Midwest Gino Kenny added: “I’m getting more and more people contacting my office because they are at risk of homelessness or already homeless. People are spending years in emergency accommodation because they just can’t find any private rented homes.
“It’s absolutely infuriating to see that only 4 properties have been bought by South Dublin County Council under the tenant in situ scheme in the Palmerstown/Lucan/North Clondalkin area. This was supposed to be the government’s solution to prevent homelessness. It’s clearly not working and we need urgent action now to tackle the housing emergency.
“We need to re-instate the eviction ban to prevent any more families and individuals ending up in homelessness.”
