Athlone-area housing crisis hits students and locals in perfect storm

A perfect storm is emerging in the housing rental market in Athlone, with both students and locals left desperately short of places to live.

Students are being forced to defer or decline college places at the Athlone campus of Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) for the new academic year due to what has been described by their union as “an unprecedented accommodation crisis.”

And landlords are reported to be exiting the rental market in droves, leaving an already pressurised accommodation scene for local tenants at boiling point.

The student accommodation crisis has prompted the Students’ Union at TUS Athlone to launch a new initiative aimed at encouraging homeowners in the Athlone area to rent out a room to students, with thousands of flyers outlining details of the new scheme being distributed to private homes this week.

“We have 420 international students starting on the Athlone TUS campus on September 18, and the majority of them have nowhere to live. It's as simple as that,” said Darcy Lawless, Deputy President of the Midlands TUS Students' Union.

“We have been absolutely inundated over the past month with queries from students seeking accommodation.”

With a huge number of landlords exiting the rental sector and, in the absence of purpose-built student accommodation in Athlone, Darcy said a number of TUS students are “already in emergency accommodation” and the union is desperately trying to source something more permanent for them.

“There are digs available around the Athlone area, but they are not an option for our international students because they only operate on a five day per week basis, leaving students effectively homeless over the weekends,” he said.

The Athlone TUS campus, with 8,000 students, is the biggest across all six campuses that make up the TUS university network, but Darcy said the accommodation crisis for students coming to study in Athlone is becoming “more acute, year on year,” with this year proving to be “particularly challenging.”

Athlone councillor Aengus O'Rourke, meanwhile, said the local housing market is under increasing pressure, worsened by a definite increase recently in the number of local landlords exiting the rental market.

"At least 80% of the calls I get would be housing-related, and a lot of them recently are to do with landlords leaving and selling up, which is regrettable because they form a very important part of the housing supply mix.

"A lot of landlords are leaving - there's no doubt about it - and I can't blame them. I think the Government has moved too slowly to try and shore up that particular supply of accommodation," said Cllr O'Rourke.

He said it was his understanding that tax measures to incentivise landlords to remain in the rental market would be introduced in October's budget.

"I think that should have been done before now, and I hope those measures are enough, because it's devastating in cases where families have been 5, 7, 10 or even 12 years in the same rental property and now find themselves facing a termination notice, and having to uproot, with all that goes with that.

"They're facing the loss of social ties to an area, and ties to local schools, etc. There's certainly been more of that in the last 12 to 18 months."

His comments came as figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) showed a 40% increase in the number of termination notices issued by landlords in Westmeath between April and June this year.

The Government's ban on no-fault evictions expired at the end of March and, between then and June, 105 notices of termination in Westmeath were received by the RTB. This was up from the 75 termination notices issued in the previous three months.

Nationally, the number of people who are homeless hit another record high last month, with 9,018 adults and 3,829 children in emergency accommodation.

In TUS Athlone, the students union has been calling for purpose-built student accommodation to be provided in the town, at affordable rates, but so far their calls have been unsuccessful.

“Students don't want luxury accommodation, at exorbitant prices, which is what has happened with a lot of the purpose-built student facilities in Dublin,” said Darcy Lawless. “Our students just want a place to live.”

He added that the students' union held the view that “a plan needs to be put in place” to sort the annual student accommodation crisis once and for all, but this is an issue which is “not being addressed sufficiently” by the management board of the college despite the fact that students are the “number one stakeholders.”

Fr Shay Casey, who has been providing chaplaincy services to the TUS student body for many years, described student accommodation this year as being “extremely tight” and added that affordability was also a big issue.

“Some landlords are looking for half a year's rent up front and a deposit as well, and no student can afford that,” said Fr Shay.

“We already have some students here, particularly from overseas, who have nowhere to live, and we have had students in the past who were forced to live in their cars due to the chronic shortage of accommodation, but these are the sacrifices some students are forced to make.”

South African student Liam Parker, who is in his 4th year of a Digital Marketing Degree on the Athlone TUS campus, said if wasn't for the student accommodation being provided at the former residence of the Marist Brothers, Champagnat House, on Gleeson Streeet, in the centre of Athlone, he would have nowhere to live.

“I was very lucky to be able to source a room in Champagnat House, but I had to pay a deposit of €660 and I have to pay my full rent of €3,000 for my first semester before September 1, which is expensive, but at least all my utilities are covered in that,” he said.

When he arrived in Athlone to study four years ago, Liam said it was “a bit easier”, but now he finds the supply of accommodation has gone “way down” and the rooms that are available are “extremely expensive.”

He is planning to remain in Athlone to complete his PhD, and has no plans to return to South Africa when he completes his studies.

Mark Cooney, chairperson of the Midlands Simon Community, said its new emergency accommodation facility at Clonmore House in Tullamore, which is being delivered in conjunction with Sophia Housing, would be opening in the coming weeks.

This facility will have 17 emergency accommodation units, and was designed to replace Midlands Simon's existing provision of six emergency units in Athlone and six in Tullamore.

However, Mr Cooney said the current crisis meant there was a possibility the existing Athlone and Tullamore premises might need to remain open to meet the demand.

"Given the level of homelessness, the local authorities may want to continue with the existing facilities as well as the new service," he said.

"There is discussion taking place about whether we will need to continue the existing service in Athlone and/or Tullamore, on an interim basis, to deal with the issue that's out there."

He said Midlands Simon's out-of-hours team was out every night working with those who are sleeping rough.

"Every quarter, in Westmeath as a whole, there would be 20 to 30 people who are rough sleeping, and the best we can do is to give them some assistance by providing sleeping bags and giving them some degree of comfort."