At this stage, everyone is well-familiar with the trials and tribulations of those grappling with Ireland’s housing situation. Whether you’re looking to buy or to rent, the plain fact of the matter is that there aren’t enough houses out there for everyone.
Put simply, this is a thorn in the side of all looking to put a roof over their heads. More seriously, though, the lack of houses on the market is resulting in very difficult situations for those whose lives are bound up in the private rental sector. Nobody knows this quite so well as those who work to alleviate the difficulties, such as Threshold CEO John-Mark McCafferty.
Speaking with The Irish Catholic newspaper, Mr McCafferty outlined a difficult situation for renters, but not one without some cause for optimism. In the past decade, he says, renters will have faced rent hikes, a crunch in the number of houses on the market and, more recently, the uncertainty of the Covid pandemic followed by a “a ramping up in the ending of tenancies by landlords who are selling their properties”.
Offsetting this, he says, we’ve seen an uptick in homebuilding and the introduction of the cost-rental scheme.
Unprecedented
“I suppose in the last, say, five years there has been a ramping up in home building both by private developers but also I think it’s noteworthy that approved housing bodies…the big ones have been building, they’ve had an unprecedented level of output in recent years. That’s been very, very positive in terms of supply to social housing, but also over the last couple of years then, the advent of cost-rental housing, so this below-market rental housing tenure.
“Again, some of the big approved housing bodies have started to develop and deliver. That’s a welcome development,” Mr McCafferty says.
As well as these, the ‘Tenant in Situ’ scheme has been, if not quite a “panacea”, a big help.
It’s important to say that anyone – regardless of age, demography, income – they come to us because they’re renting and they’re worried about something in their tenancy”
“The other chink of light on the horizon was the fact that Government created this Tenant in Situ scheme, where, if a landlord was prepared to sell to the local authority or an approved housing body, they would sell that property to that body and the family would then stay in that home. They would move from being private renters to renters of, I suppose, social housing or renters of cost-rental housing.
“There have been a number of success stories in relation to families in households who’ve been able to stay in their rented home, with if you like the owner changing hands, from a small, private landlord to AHP or a local authority and that is a positive.”
Despite these positive developments, there are specific groups of people that the adversities of the private rental scene are hitting harder than others, who are at risk of being left behind. Threshold is working to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“It’s important to say that anyone – regardless of age, demography, income – they come to us because they’re renting and they’re worried about something in their tenancy, or they’re worried about losing their home or they’re facing a tenancy termination and notice of termination from their landlord,” Mr McCafferty says.
Affect
“That can affect anyone regardless of geography, income, demography. It’s the first important point. That said, we tend to spend more time with people facing tenancy termination because it’s a question of holding onto your home or losing your home. The tenants that require most support are usually tenants for whom English isn’t a first language. They aren’t from Ireland and they’re struggling to navigate if you like the policy environment, the public government environment that I suppose most of us are more familiar with, for those who’ve grown up in Ireland, so there are particular needs there for people for whom English is a second language or they’re struggling with English.”
Our service is open to everyone across the State and anyone who has a tenancy problem can approach Threshold and we will assist everyone, regardless of background”
People who are offline, “who aren’t so comfortable with using webchat services and online destinations for finding out information”, are also at a disadvantage when it comes to navigating the rental market, Mr McCafferty says, using the term, the “digitally marginalised”.
“So it’s important that we link in with those clients through our phoneline and where we can through our face to face services. As I say, our service is open to everyone across the State and anyone who has a tenancy problem can approach Threshold and we will assist everyone, regardless of background. But I guess, people on higher income with greater social connections are better placed to navigate and negotiate the rental and housing market. People on lower incomes with less social connections, who are, if you like, digitally marginalised and for whom English is a second language or where there’s low English language skills, require particular help and support, I think that’s fair to say.
“People who are on Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) but have experienced a level of discrimination where a landlord won’t accept someone on the housing assistance payment. That’s a particular group. People who can’t find the accommodation at the kind of price point that they’re at, given their income, given their resources. They’re also a particular focus. We’re open to all, but there are particular at-risk groups that we’ll tend to spend more of our staff time and resources on.”
Threshold provides free advice to people experiencing housing difficulties and campaigns for a “fairer” housing system, as well as representing tenants at the Residential Tenancies Board and the Workplace Relations Commission.
Optimistic
Asked whether he’s optimistic about the near-future for private renters, Mr McCafferty says if you’re working in the housing industry in Ireland in any way, shape or form, you’ve got to maintain a sense of optimism.
“You have to be optimistic, you have to be hopeful about the future of housing because, as well as providing services, we also advocate for change and advocate for legislative change, policy change in relation to a fairer, more affordable, higher quality housing system with greater supply.
“That’s our north star, so we’re hopeful that that can be achieved. Obviously there are challenges right now that are slightly different from five years ago, ten years ago. There is a lack of supply in the private rental market. Smaller landlords are leaving. Affordability of private rental accommodation continues to be a challenge, but it appears to be softening in some regards, especially in Dublin – albeit from a very high base,” Mr McCafferty says.
Regardless of the challenges, Threshold’s job is to “let people know that they do have rights, that tenants have rights – and responsibilities – and it’s important to exercise those rights within the context of the legislation, and the legislative protections they can avail of,” Mr McCafferty says.
“We’re there to provide tailored advice to tenants, to represent them in disputes where necessary, where required, where appropriate. In Threshold, our challenge is always visibility, profile, that people know that we exist and that we’re there to help renters across the board and we’re there to protect tenancies. We’re there to advise, we’re there to represent where appropriate and I think that’s our ongoing challenge.”
The work can only be done through the generous support of donors, Mr McCafferty says, adding that they “simply can’t do that work without support from the general public”.
“We know a lot of Irish Catholic readers have supported and do support us so I’d like to make that point as well because we are a lean organisation, extremely lean…and we are really dependent every year on the generosity of donors and individual donors in supporting our work.”
Threshold’s job is to ‘let people know that they do have rights, that tenants have rights – and responsibilities – and it’s important to exercise those rights within the context of the legislation, and the legislative protections they can avail of’”