AT a recent municipal district meeting in County Limerick, Mayor John Moran was accused of being “bogged down” with the Vienna Model of housing, which he has dedicated €1million of his annual funding towards.
The Vienna Model considers that the key to a more equitable society lies in the provision of affordable housing that takes account of tenants’ needs. Its social housing model strives for this by involving both the middle class and lower-income groups.
The City of Vienna’s local government say that the 220,000 municipal flats and 200,000 subsidised dwellings of the Austrian capital make up the cornerstone of social housing in the city. Roughly 50 percent of Vienna’s population live in one of these two housing types.
On its website, the Viennese governing body explains: “Uniform and transparent allocation criteria allow for a good social mix in social housing estates and make sure that the middle class, too, has access to this large and still growing pool of dwellings. At the same time, affordable rents boost purchasing power. The large share of social housing contributes towards more affordable prices for a major proportion of the entire housing market.
“Moreover, the sustained efforts towards ‘gentle urban renewal’, too, play a role towards keeping housing in general affordable and also safeguard about 20,000 jobs in the construction industry.”
At the same time, Vienna advocates the improvement of environmental and climate protection. Social housing construction helps to cut around 371,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
From day one, Mayor John Moran has been a big believer in this model for Limerick. The sense of urgency was not lost in April this year, when the Treaty City’s executive mayor declared “a housing emergency”.
“We have been delivering only a fraction of the homes we need. The result is a growing gap of thousands of homes that is affecting families, workers, and young people right across our city,” he said at the time.
The Mayor pointed to data showing that Limerick has delivered significantly fewer homes than required, with recent Government analysis placing the local authority at or near the bottom of national public housing delivery rankings.
He cited the need to deliver 4,000 homes a year to catch up on “the last decade of under-delivery”, suggesting that, in practical terms, this would mean “completing every year the delivery of 14 sites of the same scale as the LDA Gasworks site on the Dock Road”, which will deliver 285 new apartments.
Bogged down in Vienna
However, during this month’s Newcastle West district meeting, Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan took the view that Mayor Moran is getting “bogged down” with his Vienna Model objectives over the original grant funding to do up vacant properties and put them back on the open market.
“Some of these houses are not achieving the market value. So, if that is the case, I would propose that if the Mayor doesn’t get these sorted by the June meeting that we take over these as our own housing stock,” Cllr Sheahan insisted.
Mayor Moran recently stressed that solving Limerick’s housing emergency will require “collective leadership and a willingness to embrace change”. One striking aspect of the recent three-hour Annual Service Delivery Plan meeting was a seeming inability of councillors and mayor alike to engage respectfully and meaningfully to address small technicalities without impasse or the need for adjournments.
Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely, who strongly opposed Mayor Moran’s plans for 500 modular units at Janesboro’s Boro Park, raised issue with the mention of the Vienna Model in the annual delivery plan.
She proposed an amendment under Property Acquisition asking for reference to the Vienna Housing Model to be removed as it is not in line with Government policy. She also proposed a mention of the model under Property Disposal to be removed.
“We requested a briefing on the Vienna Housing Model. That hasn’t happened. I have great concerns about derelict properties being used for Vienna and not being brought back into use for people on the social housing list. Private rental is the model really that Vienna is bound by, and if we’re going to be using derelict properties that are vested in Limerick City and County Council’s ownership, they should go back into our housing stock to service the people in most needs, not for an aspirational Vienna Housing Model, not in line with Government policy,” Cllr Kiely hit out.
‘It’s not market private rent, it’s cost recovery rent’
Green Party councillor Seán Hartigan wanted Council confirmation on whether the Vienna Housing Model is the same as Cost Rental, which is mentioned in the Programme for Government nine times.
The Council’s Head of Housing Strategy, Sarah Newell, told Council members that they are organising an official from Vienna Council to give a talk to the elected members. She explained that the affordable rental Vienna Housing Model is housing policy under Housing for All.
“It’s the Housing for All policy for private, social, and affordable housing, where there’s a target to deliver a quantum to 2030,” Ms Newell commented.
“To answer the councillor’s question on affordable rental, Vienna housing being cost rental, both are the same in that we’re trying to achieve a cost recovery rent. It’s not market private rent, it’s a cost recovery rent.”
Cllr Hartigan then opposed Cllr Kiely’s amendments on the Vienna Model. This was seconded by Mayor John Moran.
“I did actually look this up, and the Vienna Housing Model isn’t referenced in Government policy, and it’s very clearly set out there that there’s an aspiration, I would say, to take derelict properties and put them into some sort of a DAC. We are not in the habit of doing that, because it’s not policy,” Cllr Kiely replied.
“All the properties we vest should go back into social housing. That’s what I’m proposing, nothing else. The staff in the Housing section are not funded by the Government to deliver Vienna. They’re not funded to work on Vienna, because it’s not Government policy. So what the people in our Housing Department should be working on is delivering social and affordable housing, that’s what they’re funded to do, not Vienna. And I’ve had that from a very reliable source,” she insisted.
‘Trying to prevent the Mayor and officials delivering things the people of Limerick voted for’
Mayor Moran took the view that the City East representative’s amendments were coming across as “somebody who wants to have a mandate or referendum on the Mayor’s programme”.
“Maybe that’s unintentional, but that seems to be what this is intended to do. The Mayor’s Programme, and the Mayor’s mandate specifically referred and put to the people of Limerick a number of proposals to deal with the people that are struggling out there with the lack of available rental accommodation in order to actually try and meet that gap,” the Mayor commented.
“It did not suggest moving away from public housing, it did in the traditional sense of the of the words, but it did actually have a number of other measures in there, which are designed to help neighbourhoods transition from oversupply, in the past, of social housing.”
The Mayor said that “this is going to come across to the public as the councillor who’s proposed the motion, and those who are seconding the motion, trying to prevent the Mayor and the officials delivering things that the people of Limerick voted for expressly in the mayoral election.
“If we are to blindly follow the messages that come from Dublin as to what they think is best for Limerick, then we are not doing a service to the people of Limerick, and we are certainly not recognising the fact that in the mayoral election they chose to have somebody who could think independently and who could be asked to follow the proposals that they were accepting for innovation, independent thinking in the line of housing.”
Council Director General Dr Pat Daly pointed out that the Vienna Model is a “pilot” in Limerick, and is a description of a particular approach which should be expressed more clearly.
“I don’t know if Government see it as formal government policy, so I think we need to clarify that ourselves. I am meeting the Minister on certain items and I will raise a conversation on this,” Dr Daly said.
After over two hours of arguing the same points, Mayor and councillors managed to come to a compromise that worked for all parties on the wording in the service delivery plan. Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan concluded that this was the first real conversation the Council has had with its members around the Vienna Housing Model.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme