Protest outside Dáil at rent hikes

Stheno

From the Irish Times

A Dublin woman who was forced to split her family after her rent increased by almost 45 per cent has been encouraged to reconsider her situation by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.

Gwen Connell and her three children had to move out of their Dublin 15 home two weeks ago following a rent rise of €400 a month. Ms Connell is staying with a friend while her children are staying with relatives.

The maximum rent allowance available to the family is €950. Despite a two month search, Ms Connell said she cannot find a two-bedroom house or apartment within that price range where the landlord is will to accept tenants in receipt of rent allowance.



Ms Connell and her oldest daughter Lauren (17), and middle daughter Katie (10), took part in a protest outside the Department of Social Protection in Store Street, Dublin after receiving a letter from Ms Burton in relation to the family’s plight.

In the letter, Ms Burton said she was “very sorry” to hear of Ms Connell’s difficulties with the rent supplement scheme. However, she said her office had been informed by the rent section in Dublin 15 that although “some categories of housing” are becoming harder to find, there was still availability.

“I would ask you to consider that access to affordable housing is a chronic challenge for many people, including people who are in work and not eligible for rent supplement,” the letter said.

“This leads to people having to make some very, very difficult choices. To ensure that you and your family can live together again in housing that you can afford, you may have to think anew about your family’s many needs, and how those needs can be met within the housing market as it exists at the moment.”

Ms Connell said it was clear the Minister did not believe she was making a serious attempt to find somewhere for her family.

“I’m not looking for a palace. Joan is telling me to lower my expectations. There are no expectations to be lowered.”

Ms Connell became visibly upset as she described having to publicly “parade” her family because of the situation they found themselves in.

“I have been a model tenant, there has never been any issue any place we’ve lived, the only problem is that I’m on rent allowance.”

Ms Connell said she and her daughters “missed each other terribly” but she was unwilling to make them homeless and for them to end up staying in a hotel.

Lauren Connell said no one could doubt how hard her mother had searched for a place to live.

“It’s very hard to move away from my mam, I hadn’t realised how much she does for me. She looked after us all so much, I just want us to all be back together.”

Wed, Feb 26, 2014, 14:59

First published: Wed, Feb 26, 2014, 14:42

Is this the beginning of Dublins rent bubble affecting folks trying to rent? After reading this story, I searched all of Dublin on daft for propertys under 950e a month that accepted rent allowance and found 8, none in D15.

Or is it a case that with the accomodation problems in the city, people on limited incomes should be prepared to uproot themselves and move?

foggy_lad

Joan Brutal is seeking to rebuild the tenement houses and then these families will be able to live together in the same big room like their grandparents and great grandparents did.

She is telling the woman to f00k off basically, stating that "her office had been informed by the rent section in Dublin 15 that although “some categories of housing” are becoming harder to find, there was still availability."

I just hope that very very soon this politician has to seek out such accommodation for her own family and she will see how easy it is!

athtrasna

The problem with rent allowance is that the sins of the few impact on the many. Rent Allowance recipients are tarred with the same brush despite there being a myriad of reasons why people are in receipt.

As a (thankfully/recently) former landlord we had mixed experiences with our tenants. And made sweeping generalisations after each tenancy - ditched our agents after the first, said families only after our second, our third were great, our fourth (the only RA one) trashed/vandalised the house beyond belief, despite appearances and references that they were a very quiet family. Had there been a fifth letting, we too would have joined the no rent allowance brigade. Because it was our house, our call. Not just because of the damage but because of the unilateral decision on the part of the local authority to reduce what they were paying in rent. The two combined meant we were being paid less than market rate and ended up with a trashed property.

At the end of the day a house/apartment is the landlord's asset and they can choose who they let it to. It's not Joan Burton's fault that the bad tenants ruin things, the part of the system that needs overhauling are the default system of paying the rent to the tenant not the landlord, the lack of consultation regarding rents payable, and the lack of power that a landlord has to evict a non paying/disruptive/neglectful tenant.

This family's story is sad, but either we need more social housing or massive changes to the RA system and the RTA. To protect the genuine tenants, and stop channelling funds to those who abuse the system.