Dublin City Council’s been given more money to fix boarded up houses.
So far this year, they’re fixed up 327 empty houses and flat, also known as "voids", with funding from the Department of Environment.
Those buildings have been given to either homeless families or those on the housing list.
Today, the council’s been give an extra 4.3 million Euro which will help refurbish another 234 vacant unit.
Labour’s Joe Costello says it’s badly needed:
“Every unit is vacant for months. So now this injection of funding gives Dublin City Council no excuse what so ever but to get out there and to get those back in circulation and to help reduce the crisis in housing that’s there at the moment”.
Joe added that a constituent told him recently that the unit beside them has been empty for two years, he says that’s unacceptable given the current crisis:
“If we’re under constraints in relation to housing and particularly homeless at the present time, then it’s absolutely essential that every unit of accommodation is brought into circulation”.
The three other Dublin Local authorities have also received money to do up vacant houses.
111 units are expected to become available by the end of the year.
