Eviction ban in the spotlight at virtual townhall meeting

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Galway Daily news Eviction ban in the spotlight at virtual townhall meeting

A virtual townhall meeting to address the housing crisis and the impact of the end of the eviction ban in Galway West will be held next week.

The townhall meeting is being organised by Uplift, a grassroots social campaigning group, with the support of Féile Housing, a community based arts collective.

The virtual meeting will take place on Thursday, April 13 at 7pm, giving a chance for people in Galway to share firsthand experiences of how the housing crisis, and coming evictions, have impacted them.

Uplift have said that it is also meant to give the public a chance to put questions to their local TDs who are attending.

Director of Uplift, Siobhán O’Donohue said, “The government has made a political decision to lift the no-fault eviction ban at a time when nearly 12,000 people are homeless in the State – including 3,431 children.”

“It is only right that local residents should be able to put questions to their elected representatives, including the most fundamental – ‘where am I to go?’”

Among the other speakers at the event will be Prof Roy Kearns, a housing expert.

Galway residents can register to attend the meeting at this link before the meeting begins.

The government made the decision last month to let the temporary eviction ban come to an end on April 1.

There have been concerns that a tidal wave of evictions will be coming in the months ahead, as figures from the Residential Tenancies Board show that 4,300 notices to quit were issued in the just the final three months of last year.

Even among government party ranks, the decision has not been unilaterally supported, with Fianna Fáil City Councillor Alan Cheevers breaking party ranks to call for the eviction ban to be extended until September.

Cllr Cheevers said that he, “can’t support a policy of ending the eviction ban at present until the programme of measures and supports proposed by government are fully operational.”

He expressed concerns about the fact that there is presently very little emergency accommodation available to the city council, and people are concerned about becoming homeless.

“Over the last few weeks many of my constituents who are on notice to quit, have contacted me. Many of these people do not know whether they will have a roof over their heads in the coming weeks.”

The decision has also resulted in a bizarre saga playing out in the national media as Fr Peter McVerry said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar overruled the Housing Minister to have the ban ended, only to withdraw that accusation this week.