The creation of a public housing agency should play an important role in meeting the challenge of providing a large number of housing units over the coming years.
Providing a steady supply of social houses on an annual basis is an ongoing need of a well-functioning, stable economy. While existing state agencies can alleviate some of the current problems, the creation of a public agency would considerably aid efforts to plan, finance and deliver a large number of social housing units.
Key Points
- A well documented increase in house prices and rent has occurred over the past eighteen months, particularly in Dublin.
- Public capital investment has been repeatedly reduced since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008. This policy has led to the total number of new social housing units being made available falling by 48 percent between 2008 and 2012.
- Even in times of strong economic growth a large segment of the population require state assistance to meet their basic housing requirements.
- An affordable housing agency would draw on the capital assets, experience and knowledge of existing state agencies and should aim to provide 25 percent of new or renovated housing units as social housing each year.