Co-operating for better housing for ALL
Running from: 11th Sep- 11th Sep 2019
ONE Galway is localising the call for a public housing programme and improvements to rental accommodation ....
The housing crisis is now among the top priorities for the ONE Galway movement, along with tackling precarious work in Galway. The student and trade union movements, along with local community groups, are developing a campaign together in Galway to engage with and lobby local politicians to improve the situation in the housing sector, which includes putting a public house building programme in place and stricter enforcement of rental regulations.
On Wednesday September 12th in Monroe's Tavern Galway, an accommodation crisis workshop, opened by the Mayor of Galway Neil McNeilis will discuss the difficulties which students and young workers face in the rental sector. Every participant will be asked to sign the petition details of which are below. This is a great opportunity to participate and lend your voice to the discussions and debate on the future of housing provision in Ireland and to ensure our local politicians listen to our concerns and are willing to do something about it.
In order to alleviate the housing crisis in Galway City and surrounds, the petition calls on all TD’s, County and City Councillors to publicly commit to:-
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Securing a substantial increase in public funding to build affordable, purpose built student accommodation in the great Galway area and publicly owned lands to be developed by Galway City and County Councils for student accommodation and public housing;
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Ensuring all tenants within the rental sector should enjoy security of tenure and certainty in relation to rent and standards of accommodation. Therefore, statutory rental regulations should be fully enforced and a significant increase in the number of inspectors and inspections should be undertaken by each local authority in pursuant of those rental regulations and ensure those found in breach will be subject to the full force of the law;
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Seeking a review of the housing and rental regulations and for the penalties to be increased to provide a deterrent against exploitation in the rental sector;
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Properly fund housing and other support agencies, relevant to the private rental sector, through the provision of additional funds from public funds nationally;
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Seeking the introduction of adequate regulation of on-line short-term leasing platforms, similiar to the practice in other European countries, in order to increase the availability of appropriate housing supply.
