Editorial: Affordable housing is clearly a misnomer for young working couples in Mayo

A very worrying revelation for young couples seeking to provide a home for themselves and their families is that the government's affordable housing concept is a misnomer.

The matter came to light when Castlebar Independent Councillor Harry Barrett controversially used the word 'bonkers' when referring to the likely costs of dwellings in a planned 35-unit affordable housing scheme by a private developer in the Rathbawn area of the county town.

Information published in relation to the scheme said that they would be priced between €260,000 and €300,000, and he rightly wondered how young couples can aspire to raising up to €30,000 for a deposit, whilst paying rent. Some will, of course, but many will have their hopes dashed.

The story developed further when Councillor Barrett outlined at a meeting of the council's housing strategic policy committee that even if couples were successful in raising the €30,000 deposit, they then faced a mortgage of up to €1,639 a month.

He correctly pointed out that a host of people earning an income of between €34,000 to €59,000 are consequently being locked out of having a home because they are above the social housing threshold and not earning enough to apply for a mortgage for one of these properties.

This is another example of how the so-called 'squeezed middle' is being sacrificed on the altar of the government's ongoing lack of understanding and insight of the deepening housing crisis and people's financial struggles in making ends meet.

These people have lost trust in the system and the system has turned its back on them.

That's the sad reality.

It also calls into question the values of a government that promotes affordable housing as a solution to a social hardship when the opposite is actually the case.

There is, as Councillor Barrett articulated, an urgent need to place greater pressure on our Oireachtas members to campaign within their own party structures to bring prices down so young people can aspire to having a home.

Another factor which comes into play is the prospect of local authorities like Mayo County Council being given the power and finance to build their own schemes like they did in the past without seeking to make profits like private developers do.

This problem is not unique to Castlebar as similar affordable housing schemes are being proposed for Claremorris, Ballina and Westport.

One wonders, however, if they are already dead in the water?