People renting properties in Kerry are being flooded with notices to quit and the number is now growing at an exponential rate, causing all sorts of upset and hardship, a Kerry TD has highlighted.
Deputy Pa Daly has urged Housing Minister, Darragh O’Brien, to take urgent action to address the crisis in the rental sector that has developed over the past year.
“There were 1,781 notices to quit served in the second quarter of 2022, a massive increase from 841 notices in the same period in 2021. In Kerry, I am hearing that three families a week are being made homeless. These figures are alarming and require urgent action,” he said.
The Sinn Fein TD said he is being contacted, on a daily basis, by individuals and families who have been issued with notices to quit and cannot find any rental accommodation.
“They have been forced to resort to homeless accommodation which, in some cases, has resulted in whole families going from a stable family home that they have lived in for five to 10 years, to one bedroom in hostel accommodation,” he said.
Deputy Daly said from his contact with housing officers, he knows that they are even running out of hostel accommodation and there is a risk of having nowhere to house people, even on a temporary basis.
He said the minister needs to convene an urgent meeting to address this crisis in the rental sector and it must include the Residential Tenancies Board, tenant and landlord representative organisations and opposition housing spokespeople.
“We urgently need a crisis intervention plan to slow down the disorderly exit of private landlords exiting the rental market,” Deputy Daly said.
“The number of single people and families being evicted will increase significantly in Kerry every month for the remainder of this year and well into 2023. This will lead to a level of homelessness that we would previously have thought impossible,” Deputy Daly warned.
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