CEO tells Minister, Fingal County Council Tackling Homelessness.
Chief Executive informs Council of correspondence with Minister
At this evening’s monthly meeting of Fingal County Council, the Chief Executive, Paul Reid, informed Councillors that he has written to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in response to his letter dated September 5, 2018, in relation to “Tackling Homelessness in Fingal County Council”.
The Chief Executive added that the Minister’s request for a submission to be prepared for the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive on Fingal County Council’s plans in relation to Emergency Accommodation and Family Hubs is being compiled and will be submitted by the deadline of Wednesday, September 12.
In his letter to the Minister, the Chief Executive addressed the issue of homelessness in Fingal and the Council’s focus on minimising the time people spend in emergency accommodation with 259 families having already exited this year.
He also highlighted Fingal County Council’s performance within the Rebuilding Ireland programme where it exceeded its 2015-2017 target by 62% in delivering 2,241 social housing homes and is currently on schedule to meet its 2018 target of providing 1,637 homes having already delivered 1,099 to the end of August.
Mr Reid also highlighted the Council’s efforts in stimulating construction within the private
sector with Housing completions in Fingal up by over 70% year on year while there are currently 72 active sites which will deliver over 12,000 homes with planning permission for another 55 sites and over 5,000 more homes. He added that Fingal is committed to providing affordable as well as social homes and is progressing with plans to develop land banks in its ownership across the county.
The Chief Executive pointed out that Fingal County Council has overseen a drawdown of over €3.7 million in Rebuilding Ireland Home Loans since the scheme started in February and was the first Local Authority to bring a project under the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) to construction. Fingal’s three LIHAF projects in Donabate, Swords and Baldoyle will deliver almost 7,000 mixed tenure homes between them.
Mr Reid also observed that Fingal County Council, and the local government sector generally, has been rebuilding capacity and skills in recent years. He said that it was therefore all the more surprising that a decision to further remove the already limited ability to control and make decisions on projects was proposed when further devolution would be more beneficial in terms of project process and delivery.
Mr Reid concluded his letter by stating Fingal County Council is conscious that more needs to be done and that the Minister will continue to receive the fullest support from himself and the Council’s Housing Department.