At this month’s Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District meeting, Sinn Féin’s Davy Dunne has once again raised the issue of mobile homes being temporarily exempt from planning.
The newly elected Cathaoirleach says that he intends to submit his idea to the new chair of Housing at the SPC to modify the legislation around log cabins, modular homes, and mobile homes as the homelessness situation worsens.
An emergency meeting was called when five families presented as homeless in Clonmel last week but the meeting has been postponed until July to allow the Housing SPC time to deal with the issue.
He told Tipp FM that 10 people were using the run-down Clonmel Arms as accommodation as emergency accommodation is not an option and believes his idea is a solution that will tackle homelessness.
“There’s ten people. They were sleeping in the run-down Clonmel Arms hotel. To me, that’s not good enough. These people should be taken out of there. It’s unsafe; they have addiction problems and they need help. They won’t get emergency accommodation because there is no emergency accommodation, but we need somewhere to put them.
“We have families that are needing emergency accommodation. We’re going to have to use modular homes. Around hotels, they often build these houses, they’re called chalets.
“They’re being used as accommodation as well, so I don’t see much difference between a chalet and a log cabin. That’s the two suggestions I’ll be bringing up to them [Housing SPC]. We have to avoid a situation where people are sleeping in their cars and sleeping rough.”
He believes that the lack of emergency accommodation for Ukrainians will result in the temporary use of log cabins, modular homes, and mobile homes, and says that he intends to submit these ideas to the Head of Housing, Sinead Carr, as the homelessness situation worsens.
“I’d be fairly confident that a lack of accommodation for the Ukrainians is that they will end up having to use modular homes, log cabins, or even mobile homes, in exceptional circumstances.
“The head of housing, Sinead Carr, is asking for ideas in and around how we could solve the housing crisis. They look for ideas, and I will be bringing them because we need to think outside the box.
“So, the two ideas I would have are: we have to use modular homes, we have to use log cabins, and, in extreme cases only, we have to use mobile homes. Some people call them ‘chalets’ when you take them off the wheels.“
