Waterford City and County Council’s Housing Delivery Action Plan 2022 – 2026 gives a 7-page outline as to the number of units that should be delivered to meet social and affordable housing over the next 5 years. Not only is the Housing Department aiming to make good on the delivery of these houses, it will only provide for 60% of the ambitious target of 366 houses that they set for the delivery of Affordable Housing. The remaining 40% will be provided by “Approved Housing Bodies”. There is also a plan to provide 1,238 Social Housing units in the City and County.
To be fair to the Waterford City and Council Housing Department, it reviewed the needs of the County and decided to set their own target for the delivery of 366 units rather than go with the out-dated research findings by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage who concluded that 76 social houses will satisfy the demand.
The Comeragh District will accommodate 57 social housing units, while the Metropolitan District will provide 1,041 of the units. The remaining 140 housing units will be built in the Dungarvan-Lismore District.
There appears to be an overly ambitious target set for the Council who have less that 4 years to complete these units.
“While the target of 76 homes set by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage was always intended to be a baseline target, the target of 366 as set by the Housing Department at Waterford City and County Council is considerably more ambitious and in line with the extent of demand evidenced in the Housing Strategy and Housing Need Demand Assessment undertaken as part of the WCCC Development Plan 2022 – 2028.”
– Waterford City and County Council Housing Delivery Action Plan
Expected Set-Backs
As ambitious as this plan is, there are multiple set-backs that are expected:
1. Outdated survey findings and targets that will fail to meet the growing needs of the Comeragh District over the next 5 years.
2. Competition coming in from asylum seekers and immigrants, where the current government claim that they have “moral and legal obligations” to house them. If and when these housing units are complete, there is a strong likelihood that the majority of the units will be given to non-nationals going by the current trend.
3. The Housing Delivery Action Plan is not, I repeat NOT, for Irish people. The term they prefer to use is the ‘Housing For All Plan’, which reads between the lines as “the majority of these units will be for the illegal immigrants and fake asylum seekers with a few going to those on the housing waiting list.”
4. The government recently announced up to €20,000 incentives for you to lease out your bedroom(s) as it will apparently satisfy the one-unit demand that is reported in their Housing Delivery Action Plan.
5. According to the Housing For All Plan, 60% of the social housing demand is for a one-person household. Thus, paving the way for small one-bed apartments or bedsits that is not conducive for housing families should one find themselves in a position to start a family.
6. There is no budget set out in this report.
7. The Comeragh District is lacking appropriate headings in Table 2 on Page 6, instead being referred to as Waterford Dungarvan-Lismore. It is a typo and can easily be rectified but it shows complacency and a lack of respect to an area that is expected to deliver 57 units for social and affordable housing units.
8. Guarantee the residents in the Comeragh that any new housing developments will not be sold in bulk to vulture funds or cuckoo funds. These buy up to 80% of a new development, and then release each unit onto the rental market at above-market rents. Members of the Dáil voted in their majority to allow such funds to continue the bulk purchase of developments.
Suggested Changes
Without being disrespectful to those who researched and published the Housing Delivery Action Plan, there needs to be some realistic changes or additions to be made.
1. Send back the undocumented illegal immigrants and fake asylum seekers that have received housing in Ireland or are accommodated in IPAS centres.
2. Some Ukrainians are heading home, while others went on their holidays back to Ukraine. Ukraine is a vast county with much of it unaffected by the war that is occurring along its border with Russia. Zelensky has received a lot of capital and can accommodate his own people in central, northern and western Ukraine. Send back those Ukrainians who are genuinely safe.
3. Send back those claiming asylum from ‘safe countries’.
4. Social and Affordable housing demand would ease. Allocate these properties to Irish people first.
5. Do not build one-unit properties or bedsits as it is short-term thinking and will exacerbate the issue within 5 years.
6. Have open consultation and dialogue with local communities. Inform and reassure them that no military-aged male who claims fake asylum and remains undocumented will not take up residency in these social and affordable houses.
7. Assess the targeted local area for suitable amenities and if it falls short, implement a plan to cater for the community with 20 year foresight at a minimum.
8. Develop a capital and current expenditure plan that will build these houses, local amenities and continued maintenance.
9. Develop alternative scenarios based on the sensitivity of expenditure costs due to inflation, scarcity of resources, planning delays, costs, etc.
10. Remove the ability of vulture funds and cuckoo funds to purchase any property. Increasing stamp duty, as proposed by the government, will not deter these funds for buying up more properties.