Social housing provision is below the State’s target of 2,700 homes – The Irish Times Achi-News

The Government failed to reach its targets for providing social and affordable housing in 2023, with a shortfall of almost 2,700 homes.

Around 11,939 new social homes were introduced last year, an increase of 16.33 per cent compared to 2022 with 10,263 social homes.

However, this year’s figure was lower than the Government’s target of 13,130 per 1,191 households.

Of the 11,939 new social homes accounted for by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies last year, 8,110 were newly built homes, 1,830 were acquisitions and 1,999 were through leasing programmes.

Local authorities accounted for 2,429 new buildings, with Dublin City Council providing 323 followed by Cork City Council (263) and South Dublin County Council (190).

[ Darragh O’Brien accused of misleading Dáil during homelessness debate ]

Monaghan County Council had the fewest new buildings, 12, followed by Cavan County Council (27) and Donegal County Council (28).

More than half (7,132) of the new social homes were provided during the last four months of 2023.

Separately, some 4,011 affordable houses came into operation in 2023, despite a target of 5,500 for the year.

When broken down by local authority, South Dublin County Council provided the most affordable homes, at 650, followed by Fingal County Council (630).

Leitrim County Council provided the least number of affordable homes (three), followed by Longford County Council (five) and Kerry County Council (seven).

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said that different local authorities faced different challenges and it was clear that there was no one-size-fits-all solution.

[ How social housing providers and first-time buyers became accidental rivals in a squeezed market ]

[ Costs of social housing construction in Dublin are double those elsewhere ]

“For that reason, continuous engagement and collaboration has been key to getting us to the current position. Maintaining this will also be crucial to our efforts to realize the ambitious overall Housing for All targets originally set in 2021 – as well as our collective ability to respond to increasing targets that we know are coming.”

Social Democrat TD and housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said at a time of record homelessness, failure to meet social housing targets had “extremely damaging consequences”.

“This government refuses to recognize that the housing crisis is at the root of the affordability crisis. That’s why we have more than 500,000 adults living in their childhood bedrooms and more than 4,000 children growing up in emergency accommodation.”