Hundreds could go homeless as government funding for tenant-in-situ scheme dries up
A state scheme that prevents families from going homeless has been withering on the vine, and next year’s funding is being raided just to keep it afloat.
The tenant-in-situ (TIS) scheme allows local authorities to purchase homes from landlords looking to sell up.
Applications have recently been unable to be progressed in many councils. These councils said all their designated funds for 2025 had been allocated, and therefore they were unable to move ahead with new acquisitions.
The nine councils that exhausted their 2025 TIS allocations were: Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, South Dublin County Council, Limerick City and County Council, Waterford City and County Council, Galway City Council, Wicklow County Council, Sligo County Council and Longford County Council.
Collectively, these nine authorities represent 60pc of the €325m budget allocated by Government this year for second-hand acquisitions.
Now, the Government is allowing councils to access a portion of money from next year’s budget to progress with purchases.
Dublin City Council, the country’s largest local authority, said that €28.5m – 30pc of the allocation given for this year – had been brought forward from the 2026 budget to allow them to begin processing acquisitions again.
Housing Minister James Browne said he had written to all councils informing them that the same percentage would be brought forward for them to allow TIS purchases to move ahead.
We can only solve it by local authorities building new social homes
Mr Browne is now referring to the TIS scheme as a temporary initiative, but won’t say when it will be wound up.
“Ultimately, you cannot solve the housing crisis by buying up second-hand homes,” he said. “We can only solve it by local authorities building new social homes.”
Between the Dublin City, Fingal, Limerick, Sligo and Galway councils, more than 300 applications or expressions of interest in the scheme were no longer being progressed due to lack of funding.
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Limerick City and County Council and Sligo County Council said that, based on preliminary analysis, around 138 applications they had received since pausing acquisitions were eligible for TIS purchase, but lack of funding was holding them back.
Other local authorities did not provide figures for how many applications were on hold.
The news comes as homelessness in the State reaches unprecedented levels, with more than 16,000 people – 5,000 of whom are children – now living in emergency accommodation.
Dublin is where the homelessness crisis is most acute, with 11,567 people registered as homeless.
The TIS scheme was introduced in 2023 in the wake of the lifting of the eviction ban. It allows local authorities and the Housing Agency to step in to purchase homes in cases where renters face the threat of eviction upon sale.
Councils are now not allowed to purchase properties that require any refurbishment.
A €50m top-up to the 2025 TIS budget was expected to land before the end of the year, but this money was redirected last week towards home purchases for those on the homeless list.