Cautious welcome given to plan to use homes of elderly to alleviate housing crisis

There has been a cautious welcome to plans to use the Fair Deal nursing home scheme and regional properties to help alleviate the housing crisis.

In proposals announced on Monday morning, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy said consideration would be given to incentivising elderly people in nursing homes to rent out their homes, in cases where the care is financed by the Government’s Fair Deal scheme.

Mr Murphy put forward the idea as one of a suite of measures aimed at bringing vacant houses into use to tackle the State’s housing crisis.

He also proposed using more cost effective houses in regional areas - where there is sometimes an oversupply of housing - as well as “over-the-shop” type accommodation in urban areas.

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In response Age Action Ireland gave the Fair Deal proposal a cautious welcome. Advocacy and communications director Justin Moran said it would be necessary “to see the detail of the proposal”.

But, he said “we would certainly welcome any change to Fair Deal that encouraged nursing home residents to rent out their homes by allowing them to retain the rental income.”

Currently, under the Fair Deal scheme, a nursing home resident must hand over 80 per cent of any rental income in return for their care “and we know this puts many off entering the rental market” he said.

“A change would help them to pay the extra charges imposed by many nursing homes while also helping families struggling to find homes to rent”.

“It’s important that any change must be an incentive that protects the choice of a nursing home resident to rent out their home. We would be worried if nursing home residents, already paying levies on their income, assets and family home, would also be targeted by any vacant property tax as they would simply be unable to afford it, ” he concluded.

Rural effect

Séamus Boland of Irish Rural Link said the plan to offer people on housing lists in Dublin alternative accommodation in regional and rural areas was something that his organisation would “look at very seriously”.

Mr Boland who is a member of the Carnegie Rural Commission, which examines rural issues in Great Britain and Ireland said the plan offered obvious potential solutions in terms of “keeping teachers in schools, keeping the Garda stations open”. But he said “we have to be honest and give people good advice. If people are expecting the same level of services as they have in cities they may be disappointed.”.

Mr Boland who has recently been appointed to the board of local development agency Pobal and serves on a number of National Development Plan monitoring committees, said issues such as rural broadband and rural public transport could need to be addressed.

He said “on one level” the plan needs to take account of how many homeless people living on the streets had actually left rural areas in the first place and may be reluctant to move back.

On another level he said the “middle class working homeless” were tied to their jobs in Dublin. “If they don’t have a job then you have to have something to offer them in rural areas.”

But while he said there were difficulties, Mr Boland said Irish Rural Link welcomed Mr Murphy’s initiative. In some circumstances, such as where those moving had some knowledge of the area they were moving to, and some connection with it as well as some understanding of life there, he said the initiative could work well.