The sale of local authority homes to tenants would have "little impact on poverty", a social policy expert told a housing conference yesterday. Kitty Holland reports.
Mr Tony Fahey, of the ESRI, was speaking at a conference hosted by Dublin City Council to discuss its proposals to offer its 26,500 dwellings for sale to tenants. Dublin City Council is the largest local authority landlord in the State, owning 10,000 houses and 16,500 flats.
Though the council has for some years allowed house tenants to buy their homes, proposals to start making its flats available for sale have caused concern among tenants since first mooted last year.
The council is also examining means of transferring its housing stock to housing associations as well as transferring land banks to private developers who will build social and affordable housing in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the council.
The Tenants First organisation, founded in January, has said its key concerns are that new landlords will be less accountable, that traditionally working class communities will be undermined by an influx of wealthy new property owners and that the current communities will not be consulted on changes.
Cllr Mary Murphy told the conference, titled "Directions for Social Housing in Dublin City", the council wanted to "change the way we do business".
"Housing is central to anti-poverty strategy for the city. The biggest challenge to social housing is actually providing it," she said.
Mr Fahey said however changes in ownership of housing would have limited impact on poverty and social cohesion. He said those that benefited from home-purchase schemes tended to be the better-off tenants.
"Those at the bottom are not able to buy."
He said the positive impact of tenant purchase schemes on social inclusion was "exaggerated" as the people on "good estates will be the ones who want to buy". Proximity of home-owners to tenants, he added, "does not create social integration". He said the importance of micro-segregation within estates could not be overstated.
A resident who attended the conference, Mr John Bates, of Killarney Court - formerly St Josephs Mansions, said there were "major problems on accountability" with housing associations. He asked whether these associations were monitored once the council transferred housing stock to them.
Principal housing officer with the council, Mr Brendan Kenny, said they were not.
Mr Kenny said, however, the council firmly believed the social benefits of tenant purchase schemes far outweighed the bad.
"The idea that the tenant purchase scheme would mean there were fewer houses in the public housing stock is not true."