A new report from the Galway Simon Community found just three rental properties in Galway city that were affordable for people receiving housing support.
Galway Simon said that the latest Locked Out of the Market report shows that the gap between housing support limits and rental prices in Galway is continuing to widen.
A snapshot study of the properties available to rent on Daft.ie over a three day period on November 21-23 found an average of 24 properties available to rent on Daft in that time.
However only three of those were within Rent Supplement or HAP limits according to Galway Simon.
The rent for three one-bed properties available in Galway City was between €550 and €1200 monthly, and between €900 and €2,250 for the seventeen two-bedroom properties the report states.
Karen Golden, CEO of Galway Simon Community said that this shows using the private rental market is not the right way to deliver sustainable social housing.
She added that rising costs are forcing people on housing support to “choose between essential bills like heat, light or food and paying their rent”.
In order to tackle our growing homelessness crisis we need to focus on new ways of delivering affordable housing, as well as strengthen measures to prevent people from becoming homeless she said.
Galway City Council has said that it is on target to deliver 1,100 new social housing units by 2021, with the majority of homes expected to start being delivered next year.
Last month, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy announced that a Galway Housing Delivery Task Force is being established to help deliver affordable housing.
“There are 1,728 households on the social housing waiting list in Galway City alone, but only 54 new social housing units were delivered in Galway City in 2018 through new builds, acquisitions and leasing,” said Karen Golden.
“This year, it’s critical that an urgent focus is put on new builds, acquisition and leasing to ensure that we are less reliant on the private rental market for the delivery of social housing.”
