OVER 800 social homes are vacant in Dublin city, the local authority has said, while almost 5,000 individuals and families are waiting to be housed.
The 814 properties, including houses, flats and older persons’ units, need to be refurbished before they can be released to tenants.
The figure does not include 1,920 properties that are scheduled for demolition, such as the remaining blocks in Ballymun and units in O’Devaney Gardens and St Michael’s Estate.
Over 240 of the vacant properties, called “voids”, are in the Dublin southeast area, 176 are in the south central area and 166 are in Dublin central.
The northwest area has 150 such vacant properties, and the north central area has 81.
Exact locations of the properties were not available.
The most recent assessment of housing needs, conducted by Dublin City Council in 2008, identified that 4,991 properties were needed to accommodate those on the housing waiting lists.
If the vacant properties were released to tenants, it would cut the waiting list by one-sixth.
In a statement issued yesterday, Dublin City Council said its policy was not to give out information on vacant properties that would allow them to be identified.
It acknowledged the number of vacant homes was above average, but said it had almost 25,000 properties in its housing stock, making the vacant properties only just over 3 per cent of its stock.
It said refurbishments were not being slowed down by the need for Building Energy Rating (BER) certification as two members of staff were working full time to produce the certificates and there was no backlog.
Up to 2008, the council had sufficient capital reserves to fund the refurbishment of all vacant properties. However, as reserves dried up it had to apply to the Department of the Environment for funding and work within its allocation, the council said.
It also said it had to “cut back considerably” on the use of outside contractors, and was using staff to refurbish most vacant properties.
“Due to the recruitment embargo and the reduction of staff through retirement and the retirement incentive schemes, the direct labour force has been reduced by approximately 10 per cent; this has naturally led to a slowdown in productivity,” it said.
Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews said the council did not seem to have a plan to deal with the vacant properties.
If a prospective tenant was willing to accept a flat in its current condition, it should be allocated on that basis, he said. The 241 vacant properties in his constituency at a conservative estimate would accommodate 500 people.
Mr Andrews said he knew of adults with two or three children living in a one-bedroom flat while next door to them there were vacant two-bedroom flats.
“It appears that nothing is done with these properties. The people are obviously frustrated.”
He also said a person told him recently he was considering squatting in a vacant council property. “I would probably do the same if I was in his shoes.”
Mr Andrews urged the Department of Environment and Local Government to intervene to ensure the properties were made available to people as soon as possible.
