The sale of local authority houses is fuelling the homeless crisis, a leading expert on housing has said. 

Under the Incremental Tenant Purchase Scheme, certain people are eligible to purchase the social housing they occupy from the council. 

From January 29th, the eligibility criteria will be widened but Assistant Social Policy Professor Rory Hearne said there are “really big problems” with the proposal. 

“If you sell local authority stock to a tenant, that stock is lost as part of the social housing stock,” he told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“If you look at the figures, we have in the region of about 200,000 homes currently controlled by local authorities with social housing tenants in them. 

“In the history of the State, we built almost half a million social housing homes. 

“So, we have privatised essentially half our housing stock and when we look at, for example, homelessness now, one of the root causes of homelessness is the lack of social housing.” 

Last year, a record 13,179 people were living in emergency accommodation and there are also a significant number of ‘hidden homeless’ people - such as those who are staying with friends because they have nowhere else to go. 

Professor Hearne said it would be much better for those looking for a place to live if social housing remained owned by local authorities. 

“We’re seen situations where we’ve HAP tenants being supported in their rent, the State is going to buy it and they’re now buying it with the tenant in situ,” he said. 

“Some of that is former council stock, so councils have sold stock to tenants, the tenants then sold it on and an investor or landlord bought it.” 

Replace council stock

Property District CEO Carol Tallon disagreed and said there are “so many reasons why homeownership is a good idea” and said the State simply needs to replace the housing stock it sells off. 

“I don’t accept that if we allow people to buy out their social homes that they’re lost,” she said. 

“They’re only lost if the State doesn’t have a programme of building social housing - which it should have on an ongoing basis. 

“It doesn’t make sense how we operate our housing and social housing. If anything, our residents and citizens are paying the cost of the State dropping the ball on this over the past number of decades.” 

Experts expect property prices in Ireland will continue to increase this year due to the high demand for and limited supply of housing.

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Main image: A tent for a homeless person.