Castlebar housing crisis heating up despite extra student accommodation

CONCERNS over Castlebar’s largest student accommodation facility not being available for students have been alleviated after it was confirmed that it will be taking in students from the beginning of September.

A spokeswoman for Hawthorn Village confirmed to The Mayo News that students have been booked to move into the facility from September 1 for the coming academic year.

Westport-based county councillor Peter Flynn had previously aired concerns that the facility would not be let out to students for the coming academic year.

The apartment complex is being utilised to accommodate 102 refugees from Ukraine until the end of the month.

The private complex has over 100 beds and is often used by students at Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Mayo. It is currently the only student accommodation apartment complex in Mayo.

Hawthorn Village’s website currently advertises short-stay, long-term and student accommodation, with prices ranging from €370 to €1,275 a month.

According to a parliamentary question issued by Minister Roderic O’Gorman to Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, Hawthorn Village is only to be used as to accommodate Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTPs) from Ukraine for a two-month period.

Homeless

LOCAL county councillor Michael Kilcoyne said the revertion of the complex to student accommodation was ‘a step in the right direction’ but would not resolve Castlebar’s ongoing housing shortage.

“It’s going to help, but there’s about 40 families homeless in Castlebar. There’s over 100 people in Mayo in emergency accommodation,” Cllr Kilcoyne told The Mayo News. “It’s a step in the right direction but it’s only a small step.”

On Monday August 14, there were 27 properties available to rent in Mayo, three of which were in Castlebar town.

Last year, several ATU Mayo students successfully sourced accommodation through the college’s accommodation portal after a public appeal for people to let out spare rooms.

Twenty-three student accommodation facilities were temporarily contracted to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to accommodate Ukrainian refugees over the summer.

Cllr Peter Flynn has previously labelled people buying and converting properties into refugee accommodation as ‘speculators and faceless opportunists’.

He recently put down a motion calling on the Chief Executive of Mayo County Council to commission a report on the impact of Mayo accommodating over 4,000 Ukrainian refugees and International Protection Applicants. The motion was passed without opposition at the recent meeting of the local authority.

The report will seek to evaluate Mayo’s ‘ability to support employment, encourage enterprise, deliver critical services and maximise investment in the county’. Professional consultants will compile the report, which is to be presented to county councillors at the September meeting of Mayo County Council.

“The message needs to go back to government that we are really worried in Mayo at the way we’re moving in relation to all of this,” Cllr Flynn told The Mayo News.

‘We’re broke’

LAST October, it was announced that ATU Mayo had applied for the Department of Higher and Further Education to have Castlebar Military Barracks converted to student accommodation.

The building has sat largely disused since closing as a working army barracks in 2012. Department officials have met with ATU and Mayo County Council to discuss the proposal.

A department spokesperson told The Mayo News that this proposal will be considered in more detail through the TU Feasibility Study, which has been started by the department and the Higher Education Authority.

In 2021, the barracks was earmarked for €11 million in funding, which was to also cover the refurbishment of the Council-owned Imperial Hotel.

Mayo County Council has not drawn down any of this funding and has since sought expressions of interest in the Imperial Hotel.

Cllr Kilcoyne expressed concern about how the repurposing of the military barracks would be funded.

“The big problem about capital projects is that 20 percent of the cost has to be raised locally,” he told The Mayo News. “As we are, we’re broke, never mind getting 20 percent. Where are you going to get it?”

 _{Castlebar county councillor Michael Kilcoyne (Independent)}

Scams

THIS comes as gardaí are appealing to students to be wary of rental scams as the hunt for student accommodation ramps up.

Gardaí have advised students not to transfer payments by PayPal or Revolut and to insist on a payment receipt and a tenancy agreement.

In one incident reported to gardaí last month, a 21-year-old female posted on Facebook that she was seeking student accommodation in Cork.  The woman received correspondence from a third party with what she believed was a suitable apartment. The agent requested a deposit of €800 to secure the accommodation.

Since making the transfer she has not received keys to apartment or any correspondence from the agent.