Rapid-build housing plan will not meet Coveney’s deadline

Only one "rapid-build" housing scheme currently under construction in Dublin city will be completed ahead of the deadline set by Minister for Housing Simon Coveney to end the use of hotels for homeless families.

Mr Coveney has promised the use of hotels to accommodate families will end by July 1st. More than 700 families are living in hotels in the city.

Four estates of modular or rapid-build housing under construction in the Dublin City Council area were due to have been finished by the end of June to accommodate a significant portion of these families, with more developments expected to have been provided in Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire.

However city council has this month revised the construction deadlines pushing the completion of all but one estate beyond the end of June, with some of the homes not now expected to be ready until next September.

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Homeless families moved into the first modular estate of 22 houses at Poppintree in Ballymun last May. The scheme had been scheduled for completion the previous December.

The four estates of 130 houses now under construction at Finglas, Darndale, Cherry Orchard and Drimnagh were initially to have been completed last June. The deadline was revised to “autumn” 2016 and then to December. Finally the timeframe was extended to June this year, which would have the housing in place ahead of Mr Coveney’s July 1st deadline.

Revised timelines

This target remained in place up until last month. However the council has again revised the timelines. One estate of 39 houses at St Helena’s Drive, Finglas, is still scheduled for completion by the end of June. The three other sites – Mourne Road in Drimnagh, where 29 houses are being built; Belcamp in Darndale, with 38 homes; and Cherry Orchard, with 24 homes, have all had their completion dates moved to the third quarter of this year.

The estate at Belcamp has been given a completion date of September, but no specific timelines have been issued for the Drimnagh and Cherry Orchard schemes.

The chair of the city council's housing committee, Sinn Féin's Dáithí Doolan, said he had previously raised concerns that the deadline to end the use of hotels would not be met.

“This extension of time for the rapid builds is very concerning particularly in light of the deadline imposed by Minister Coveney for families to move out of hotels.”

Mr Coveney last week reaffirmed his commitment to the July 1st deadline to end hotel use and said families would be housed in rapid-build houses, with private landlords using the housing assistance payment (HAP), and in supported temporary accommodation known as “family hubs”.

‘Train crash’

“The family hubs, from what I have seen, seem to be inadequate to the needs of families who need proper homes and HAP is already dreadfully oversubscribed. This is a train crash waiting,” Mr Doolan said.

Of the other four local authorities only Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has said it would have any modular housing built before July 1st with 28 homes due to be completed at Churchtown in the second quarter of the year.

South Dublin County Council said it was “examining tenders at present” for 85 rapid-build homes at St Aidan’s off Brookfield Road in Tallaght, and is preparing tenders for two other projects.

Fingal County Council said a contractor would be on site in the coming weeks to provide 20 houses in Dublin 15, and it was appraising tenders for 25 homes in Balbriggan.