Richard Boyd Barrett demands ban on evictions into homelessness
Richard Boyd Barrett spoke in the Dáil about evictions and homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, urging an immediate ban on evicting people into homelessness and the removal of spurious grounds for eviction. He called for government action to prevent landlords and vulture funds from evicting tenants and proposed purchasing rental blocks to convert them to social and affordable housing.
Demand for an eviction ban during the pandemic
The deputy argued that evicting people into homelessness is totally incompatible with public health guidance during a pandemic. He said that putting people on the street or into shared facilities prevents proper hygiene, hand-washing and social distancing and insisted that, at minimum, "nobody is going to be evicted into homelessness during the pandemic".
Remove profit-driven grounds for eviction
He urged the removal of loopholes that allow evictions for sale, refurbishment or other non-fault reasons used by property owners to maximise profit. He recalled that Solidarity People Before Profit put forward an anti-evictions bill in the last Dáil which did pass with a majority and said that those grounds must be removed to protect tenants.
St. Helens Court case highlighted as example
The deputy cited the saga of St. Helens Court in Dun Laoghaire, where tenants have faced multiple eviction attempts by a vulture fund over two years. He warned that if an eviction ban is lifted those tenants would be made homeless despite the local council - named in his remarks as Dun Laoghaire, Ratown County Council - not having accommodation to house them.
Proposal to buy rental blocks from vulture funds
He said the government should proactively step in and buy rental blocks from vulture funds to prevent homelessness and to bring units into social and affordable housing stock. He referenced conversations with Threshold and pointed to previous purchases such as lease-side apartments in Cork as models for action, arguing this would also save money on HAP and other costs.
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Minister, the eviction of people into homelessness was utterly unacceptable before the pandemic and indeed Solidarity People Before Profit put forward an anti-evictions bill in the last Dáil which did get passed with a majority, I think if I'm correct Fianna Fáil voted for that, so ultimately that is the solution. We need to stop evictions into homelessness and remove any grounds for eviction that are not related to, if you like, genuine fault on the part of the tenant, but all of the loopholes, sale, refurbishment, all of those that are being used by property owners and landlords just essentially to maximize the profit on the property they own at the expense of the tenant. At the expense of real human beings who need a roof over their head and have a right to roof over their head those grounds must be removed. But whatever about that generality and to be quite honest that is the solution and we should just get on with it, but evicting people into homelessness allowing that to happen over rent arrears, over mortgage arrears or anything else is utterly incompatible And with public health during a period of pandemic and I don't think you need to write to the Department of Health to get advice on this. It is self-evident and I think you should just say now there is going to be as a minimum until we decide the bigger issue as an absolute minimum. Nobody is going to be evicted into homelessness during the pandemic as long as COVID-19 is around and it looks like sadly it's going to be around for a couple of years. At least nobody is going to be evicted and let's just say that do it and make sure that that is the policy because how on earth could be compatible with adhering to public health guidance in terms of preventing the transmission of the virus to put people on the street. You can't do it. You can't do it. Where are you supposed to wash your hands? Right? How are you supposed to maintain hygiene? You can't, you don't have a bathroom, you don't have toilets or to go into shared accommodation in some hostel or to be in a homeless hub where you're having to share kitchen facilities, bathroom facilities and so on with others. That it is incompatible with adherence to public health guidance during a period of a pandemic for anybody to be homeless or in co-living or in shared accommodation. Totally incompatible. So I think we should just recognise that and enact the policy that is necessary in order to comply with what is obvious in terms of the protection of public health. And I would say further and beyond that, as I've already mentioned, let's quickly get rid of those unacceptable, spurious and largely profit-driven reasons for evicting people. I mean, I have mentioned during the last Dáil, you probably heard me mention it, but the saga goes on and it kind of sums up a lot of what we're facing, the case of St. Helens Court in Dun Laoghaire. If the eviction ban is lifted, tenants who've had four different attempts by a vulture fund over two years to evict them will be evicted. They'll be homeless and they'll be knocking the door, Dun Laoghaire, Ratown County Council, who don't have anywhere to house them. So don't let them be evicted, but also don't let vulture funds behave in that way because they have no reasonable grounds for trying to evict these people other than the fact that they want to maximise the value of that property and the profit that they can make out of it. That simply should not be allowed. But I've also asked during the week, and I noticed Threshold, I was talking to Threshold today, and they're saying this as well, is that the government needs to proactively step in and buy these blocks which are, you know, rental blocks from these vulture funds in order to keep people from being made homeless and to bring them into social and affordable housing. stock. So I would suggest we do that in the case of, say, talents court, as was done with the lease side apartments in Cork, but in other similar situations where those kind of threats and behaviour by vulture funds persist. So I really would encourage the minister to do that, and it will save money in terms of HAP payments and all the rest of it if you don't. And here's the opportunity and the partner are going to invest in. And another chance to get this product of the Baterm Indies. Now, we're going to be looking for the best Gas chapter from this time. So that's why we're going to put into the previous group of all members of us. For this group of people that are available, I've picked up to the best of the expenses that we have a plan that we have. And that's why we're looking for the staff to make for the next time. We're going to be going to be a bit more exciting new, but we're going to be looking for the next job because of all the projects that are going to have to be true. We're going to be looking for, so many people are going to be successful. That's a couple of them are going to be looking for the most part of the latest policy account. Yeah, maybe I'm going to be the first�used idea.
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