Calls for drastic action on housing after Castlebar family offered emergency accommodation in Charlestown

THE shortage of emergency accommodation in Mayo has resulted in a Castlebar family being offered emergency accommodation in Charlestown. This comes as nationwide homeless figures reached yet another record high of over 14,000, including 107 individuals in Co Mayo.

People are officially recorded as being homeless when they access emergency accommodation. The official figures do not include rough sleepers or those living with friends and relatives.

Cllr Harry Barrett has called for increased action to address the scale of the problem, describing it as ‘a hidden story’ that is ‘not coming up on the radar as much as it should’.

The Castlebar-based Independent councillor is currently dealing with a number of homelessness cases, he said, including a mother of two who is considering moving in with her mother to avoid becoming homeless. The woman and her children were offered emergency accommodation in Charlestown just as her children were due to start the new school year in Castlebar.

Cllr Barrett has called for Mayo County Council to be more ‘assertive’ in tackling vacancy and dereliction, in order to increase the supply of housing.

Over 3,910 dwellings in Mayo were classed as vacant in both the 2016 and 2022 censuses.

To date, Mayo County Council has paid out over €2 million to property owners under the Croí Cónaithe scheme, which provides grants of up to €70,000 to refurbish derelict properties. The first four months of 2024 saw commencement notices for 265 houses in Mayo.

Despite this, Cllr Barrett said that the authorities are ‘not throwing enough’ at the housing problem. He has tabled a motion for the next meeting of Mayo County Council calling for the council to assign a staff member with responsibility for vacancy and dereliction to every electoral area in Mayo. Mayo County Council currently employs a Vacant Homes Officer, as do all 31 local authorities.

“Certain politicians, senior politicians in the county, talk about commencements. I need to see completions, completions is what we’re looking for now. We can’t wait two, three, four years down the line. This problem is growing,” Cllr Barrett told The Mayo News.

Impact of Airbnb

Cllr Barrett also called for more regulation of short-term letting, citing the huge disparity between the number of properties listed on Airbnb and Daft.ie.

“Councillors don’t want to talk about this because a lot of their constituents have Airbnb properties, but Airbnb is taking up so much supply, it has to be regulated properly.

Yesterday (Monday), 44 houses were available for long-term letting in Mayo on Daft.ie. By contrast, 1,084 entire houses or apartments were listed for short-term letting on Airbnb, according to the website Inside Airbnb.

The majority of these houses are in the West Mayo area, where there is also a severe lack of long-term rental properties.

Cllr Barrett commented: “This is an issue for our politicians who are playing senior hurling. They’ve got to increase supply, and that’s [being] more assertive on dereliction, more assertive on vacant houses and regulating Airbnb to incentivise these people to put [their rental properties] back on the market again, even if it means making it tax-free… if you go for a long-term let.”

Under yet-to-be enacted legislation, those seeking to let their property on a short-term basis in a Rent Pressure Zone (RPZ) must secure planning permission. The Westport Local Electoral Area (LEA) is currently the RPZ in Mayo, meaning that landlords in the area cannot raise rents beyond a certain threshold.

According to an email seen by The Mayo News, the council has received just two valid planning applications ‘for the use, or retention of use of residential units for short term letting’. Neither were located in a RPZ.

“We had anticipated this process for all short-term lets would have been in place much sooner, and we have not issued any correspondence to Airbnb operators or other short-term lets,” Mayo County Council’s Director of Services for Planning, Catherine McConnell, wrote to Cllr Peter Flynn in August.

‘Really disappointing’

The council is currently preparing an advertising campaign informing the public of the obligations of short-term operators in the Westport LEA.

Speaking to The Mayo News, Cllr Peter Flynn described the lack of action on short-term lettings in Mayo as ‘really disappointing’.

“I don’t think anybody has any difficulty with Airbnb for people renting out a room in an apartment or a granny flat or whatever the case may be, but it’s the standalone houses that are being taken out of the long-term market that is the major concern and is having serious knock-on impacts on our housing supply right around the county. It’s not even a Westport problem any more,” he said.

According to Inside Airbnb, 397 entire homes/apartments in the Westport LEA are available for short-term letting on Airbnb.

This compares with 114 in the Castlebar LEA, 270 in Belmullet LEA, 125 in Ballina LEA, 76 in the Swinford LEA and 102 in the Castlebar LEA.