Families need home for life
Housing and homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has called for the Government’s mortgage-to-rent scheme to be made mandatory for banks when dealing with families in unsustainable debt.
Over 1,000 family home loans are in arrears for two years or more in Galway city and county, while more than 50 mortgage to rent cases have either been completed or are being actively progressed, according to the latest figures.
The scheme allows mortgage holders at risk of losing their homes to switch to paying a fair income-based affordable rent to their local authority while remaining in their current dwellings.
Fr McVerry also called on the incoming Government to increase the scheme’s eligibility criteria so that a meaningful attempt can be made to solve many of the 27,000 cases where homeowners have been in arrears for at least two years.
At present, there are 1,200 active cases in the mortgage to rent process nationwide but Fr. McVerry wants to see that number increased significantly this year.
He challenged politicians seeking election to the next Dail to do “something drastic” to end the spiral of misery for so many families.
“What this housing crisis needs right now is radical thinking. Solutions won’t happen overnight but if the will is there, then it can happen pretty quickly,” said Fr McVerry, a member of the Advisory Board of mortgage to rent operator Home For Life.
“If the next government was serious about tackling this huge mortgage debt legacy from the past decade, it should make it illegal over the next three years to evict people without an offer of mortgage to rent,” said Fr McVerry.