Dublin homeowner criticises pace of State's response to housing offers for Ukrainians

A homeowner who has a offered vacant property to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing war has criticised the slow pace of the State’s response to place refugees into the empty properties.

Dave Farrell, from Clontarf, north Dublin, offered to house a family of Ukrainian refugees in a spare home he owns in Co Westmeath several days after the Russian invasion, but is still waiting to hear if the property is suitable from the Irish Red Cross, which is co-ordinating offers of housing.

The three-bed property in Loughstown, some 20 minutes’ drive from Mullingar, could house a family of six “at a push”, Mr Farrell said.

He had previously rented the property for €1,000 a month up until February but offered it to the Irish Red Cross to house refugees for a year. “I just wanted to quietly do this, I wasn’t looking for praise or anything,” he told The Irish Times.

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What followed was nearly two months of “frustration” as the property sat vacant while Ukrainian refugees were being housed in hotel rooms or unsuitable temporary accommodation, he said.

The Irish Red Cross has received 25,000 offers of housing from the public to put Ukrainian refugees up in vacant homes or spare rooms.

The humanitarian charity has been struggling to process the large number of pledges and pass suitable housing offers to the Department of Children and Equality, which then places refugees into the accommodation with the help of local authorities.

Irish Red Cross interim general secretary Liam O’Dwyer on Monday said processing the large number of offers had been a “real challenge”.

So far some 6,000 properties have been deemed suitable, as the charity continues to make its way through the pledged housing.

Assessment

Homeowners are contacted by phone to check the details of the offer and that they want to proceed, before an assessment of the property is carried out.

Mr Farrell said he had received a phone call from the Irish Red Cross but was unable to talk as he was in the car. He had arranged a day and time to expect another call, which he said never came. He said there was no way to call back or contact the call centre staff working through the Irish Red Cross pledges of accommodation directly.

The house was “ready to walk into” and the local community would “no doubt” be willing to support Ukrainian refugees placed in the property, he said.

Mr Farrell said he was unsure about how some aspects of the arrangement would work, such as who would be responsible for meeting the costs of utility bills and the housing estate’s management charges.

The homeowner said the slow pace at which offers of housing had been taken up “defies logic”. “This was totally anticipated, we knew they [refugees] were coming in large, large numbers,” he said.

To date, 1,900 pledges of vacant properties have been identified as suitable by the Irish Red Cross and sent to department officials to place refugees into the homes.

Another 4,000 spare rooms in shared homes have been deemed suitable so far but have not yet been sent to the department, as in many cases hosts were taking in a family with children and so needed to be Garda vetted first.

Nearly 4,000 of the 25,000 pledges were later withdrawn by homeowners and a further 1,000 people could not be contacted, according to the Irish Red Cross.

The charity had prioritised contacting people who had offered vacant properties and is currently aiming to have made at least one call to all homeowners who offered spare rooms by this Thursday.