Over 1,000 Galway households in arrears for more than two years

More than 1,000 Galway families have been in mortgage arrears for over two years, leading to calls to make the Mortgage to Rent Scheme mandatory for all banks when dealing with families in unsustainable debt.

The scheme allows mortgage holders at risk of losing their homes to move to paying an income-based affordable rent to their local authority while remaining in their current home.

More than 50 Mortgage to Rent cases have either been completed or are actively being progressed across the city and county, according to the latest figures.

Housing and homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry has called on the incoming Government to make the scheme mandatory – increasing its eligibility criteria in what he believed would be a meaningful attempt to solve many of the 27,000 cases nationally where homeowners have been in arrears for at least two years.

“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 who is a member of the Advisory Board of Mortgage to Rent operator, Home for Life.

There are currently 1,200 active cases in the Mortgage to Rent process nationwide, but Fr McVerry said this number should increase significantly in the coming year.

“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.

“However, the next government has to sit down and change the thresholds which limit the Mortgage to Rent Scheme,” said Fr McVerry.

The scheme was the only way that many of the families who were in long-term arrears would find a way of resolving their circumstances, he continued.

“The stress and misery that people are enduring must be relived and there must be an immediate review of extending the Mortgage to Rent boundaries.

“It saddens me to think that every week, there are thousands of home-dwellers living in needless fear of a knock on the door or a visit from the postman,” said Fr McVerry.

The well-known advocate said those who find themselves falling behind on mortgage repayments should not bury their heads in the sand because the arrears just won’t go away.

“Instead, I would encourage them to engage with their local MABs [Money Advice and Budgeting service] people or their lender so that their cases can be dealt with.

“If they do that, then they should be able to stay in their home if they pay a rent like all local authority tenants,” said Fr McVerry.

PHOTO: Fr Peter McVerry.