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29th Aug 2018

Protest to take place to demand compulsory order of social housing in Dublin city centre

Kate Demolder

Dublin housing protest

In the first quarter of 2018, Dublin City Council built no social housing.

An injunction has been passed against the occupants of an inner city home in Dublin, leading social housing activists to demand that Dublin City Council place a compulsory purchase order on the property so it can be returned to the community for use as permanent public housing or as a community resource.

The injunction – on a property on 34 Frederick Street North in Dublin 1 – was issued on Tuesday evening and will come into effect at 2pm on Wednesday 29 August.

This follows weeks of heated debate surrounding the worsening housing crisis, which has seen waiting lists for emergency accommodation extended to include thousands of names.

According to Dublin Central Housing Action (DCHA), 34 Frederick Street North has stood empty for about three years prior to the occupation.

In the documents submitted to court, the property owner stated that he intends to develop it as a guest house – joining the 79 other hotels under development in the city centre this summer.

This, the DCHA say, makes it “particularly galling” that they are happy to consider planning permission for 79 hotels.

The DCHA is a group of residents, tenants and volunteers from Dublin 1, 3 and 7. They first came to public prominence when they occupied 35 Summerhill Parade as a protest “against the continuing national housing crisis and the government’s complete inaction”.

They recently called for the resignation of Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy “following last minute changes and broken promises on his side”.

Instead of this property becoming another hotel for short-term residents, the DCHA has decided to “continue to demand that Dublin City Council place a compulsory purchase order on the property, so it can be returned to the community for use as permanent public housing or as a community resource”.

“We have made repeated attempts to contact and negotiate a resolution with the property owner, attempts that have so far been met with aggression and indifference,” the DCHA said.

A rally in support of the occupiers will be held directly outside 34 Frederick Street North at 1.30pm on Wednesday 29 August.

With regards to this, the DCHA says that “there has been ample opportunity to simply “highlight the housing crisis”.

“We want to continue to highlight the causes of this crisis – one of which is land hoarding and speculation by private owners.”

It was announced recently that there are almost 80 new hotel projects in development across Dublin, with plans for 5,346 new hotel rooms to be made available between now and 2020.