'The walls are crumbling down around me' - Oliver Bond tenants living in flats ‘not fit for humans’
Residents of the Oliver Bond flats have been dealt a devastating blow, as the regeneration intended to end years of decay sits in uncertainty following refused funding from the Department of Housing .
While the Department state regeneration funds of €20 million are still available and are asking Dublin City Council to resubmit a plan that would address a significant reduction of housing units, the mood in the flats is sombre. This is a community that feels left behind by the government, as they have watched one development after another get completed across the capital while their homes fall into wreck and ruin.
Tenants like Nicola live in constant fear of collapsing ceilings and persistent damp, while David, a pensioner with mobility issues, is left to navigate a dangerous staircase that has already caused him serious injury. As Dublin Live visited Oliver Bond House, it was clear to see that serious intervention is needed to address the concerns of those in a housing complex where residents are 2.4 times as likely to have asthma as locals living outside the flats.
Nicola has lived at Oliver Bond for the past eight years, and says that although she loves the community around her, the conditions are “not fit for humans”. With five children and a grandchild born with spina bifida , she’s been dealing with walls that crumble due to damp and dangerous levels of black mould since she moved in.
“The walls are crumbling down around me. I'm afraid the woman upstairs is going to end up sitting on top of me,” she said.
Nicola says her children “think I’m going mad” as she paints over black mould every few months in an attempt to cover up a problem that she cannot solve. She described her living situation as a “constant, ongoing, health hazard”.
It’s not just the walls and the roof that give Nicola anxiety, as intense flooding from the bathroom flows down her hallway and causes further damage to the floors and entire home. “I have to swim into my bedroom because the floor has flooded that much. It’s not just a little flood. You’re splashing in,” she said.
Although DCC has visited her home to repair the bathroom, Nicola says it's just been “patch up jobs” and core issues are never resolved. Things like PVC that “doesn’t seal properly” or plaster that “falls off after six months” means every issue she has returns and she’s left in a continuous cycle of which complete regeneration is the only solution.
“It's a health hazard and I have a little baby who's missing out on school because she's constantly sick. Chest infections. I'm constantly sick, my chest is now, I can barely breathe,” she said.
“We’re not asking for much. We're just asking to live a normal life and have a comfortable home to live in so that you're not afraid that kids are constantly sick or you're sick or the walls are going to fall. Or trying to find the money to get a new floor or a new bed.
“It's just constant, constant stress and worry about what the next problem that's going to happen here will be. And now they're not giving us the funding now, what are we supposed to do?
“How am I supposed to live like this? Where am I going to get the money to do this? It’s constantly getting loans off the credit union because you have to do your repairs yourself because they're not doing it.”
Nicola says “it’s embarrassing” to put so much effort into trying to live in a “decent home” only to be confronted with flooding, mould, and dampness. She said “the smell is unreal” and that she’s sick of trying to “scrap together every penny” just to resolve problems that DCC should have addressed “a long time ago.”
To make matters worse, Nicola has to deal with rats in her home and says she lays awake at night listening to their squeals all the while thinking the roof is going to collapse at any moment. She said “it irritates your brain” when you’re trying to get a night’s rest and “I might wake up with a rat in the bed beside me”.
Nicola says when she moved to Oliver Bond she was told regeneration would be completed within 10 years, now it’s been eight and “they should be almost done by now” yet nothing has happened. When Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the complex in 2020 , he promised regeneration would be incoming, but Nicola said the only change was “they painted the outside to make it look nice.”
“They should come out and live here for a while. Let’s do a house swap. The government and Oliver Bond tenants. We'll pick a few people and say you’re going to come and live here. Let’s see how many of them would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll live here, no problem’,” she said.
When contacted for comment a spokesperson from Dublin City Council stated there "are no issues whatsoever with the structural integrity of the building" and that "the roof is not in danger of collapse."
While the Department of Housing debates the importance of maintaining unit numbers, pensioners like David must face the consequences of living in a home that doesn’t meet his needs. Having to traverse a daunting stairwell every day, severe mobility issues mean he puts himself at risk of injury.
David relies on the assistance of carers and occupational therapists and feels like he has been let down by DCC. “There’s absolutely zero assistance from Dublin City Council ,” he said.
While all newly constructed council flats must be accessible, adaptable, and safe for elderly or disabled tenants, Oliver Bond House was built in 1936 and still lags well behind in terms of accessibility. This leaves David in a precarious position, as with no lift access he feels he’s consistently putting himself in danger.
David stated that the council previously attempted to fix the stairs, but the addition of a lip only caused further problems. “It’s grand coming down, but going up it’s not happening. It’s only a matter of time before another accident happens,” he said.
Having already required surgery due to a fall on the stairs, David says his needs and fears aren’t being addressed by the council. “Medical priority means absolutely nothing because they go with money first. Your medical history and your welfare and everything else is zero. Why should they have the right to put money ahead of health and welfare?” he asked.
David cited DCC’s planned move from Wood Quay to Camden Yard as particularly nerve-grating, as they’re prepared to make a multi-million euro investment into their own headquarters while tenants just down the road struggle to make it up the stairs. “That’s disgraceful in my book,” he said.
He described tenants all around him living in cramped conditions and maintenance work being subcontracted to people without adequate training, stating these difficult circumstances are only growing larger over time. As David’s medical needs grow, he feels the appropriateness of his living situation becomes more absurd.
“I don’t have any family around here. I don’t have somebody who comes on a day-to-day basis,” David said, explaining he must rely on carers to ensure his wellbeing.
While residents had been holding out hope that regeneration was imminent, David was not surprised when funding was rejected. “Dublin City Council have a lot to answer for, but I doubt if they'll answer in my lifetime,” he said.
In response, a spokesperson from Dublin City Council said: "If tenants are having mobility issues with regards to using the stairs, you can arrange to get transferred from the property on medical grounds."
When Sinn Féin Councillor Ciarán Ó Meachair found out the Department had refused funding for Phase 1 of Oliver Bond’s regeneration, he was totally devastated and described it as “one of the most shameful [decisions] they’ve made in living memory.” As a member of the Oliver Bond Regeneration Forum, he’s seen first-hand how much work has been put into the project over the past several years.
He said that “time and time again the State has shown they don’t care about the people who live in Oliver Bond” and that there is an ever growing feeling of “neglect” from a community that has been “forgotten.”
Although the Department of Housing and Minister James Brown have stated they support the regeneration of Oliver Bond, Cllr Ó Meachair feels the rejection of their proposal and no firm commitment on a timeframe for works to begin means that nothing will be solved for “the foreseeable future.”
He described the Department’s rationale behind rejecting the funding as “very poor” and said a loss of units was always a major component of regeneration plans. The planned regeneration of Oliver Bond aimed to retrofit and amalgamate the flats, many of which currently do not meet the minimum space requirements of modern apartments. The application was rejected on the grounds that it would reduce unit numbers from 74 to 46, which represents a 38% reduction of homes and does not constitute “good value for money” according to the Department.
However, Cllr Ó Meachair argues that many of flats in Oliver Bond are “quite small” and that the proposed amalgamation would have turned one and two-bedroom apartments into three-bedroom units that could house families and foster a better sense of community in the area. “DCC’s plan would have more bedspace than the government proposal,” he said.
Cllr Ó Meachair says the Department is prioritising unit numbers above all else and that an over concentration of studios means single person households, often men with no families, all converged together. He said these are the circumstances where social issues prosper and that if they wish to address anti-social behaviour and drug dealing concerns at Oliver Bond it’s important to take that into account.
When asked how the problems at Oliver Bond could be solved in the immediate, Cllr Ó Meachair said Minister Browne has the power to resolve it now. “He could literally resolve it by pretending he didn't send that letter to DCC a few weeks ago, do a complete u-turn and say we actually have the funding for phase one of the regeneration,” he said.
He pointed out that a new development of units at Bridgefoot Street, across the road from Oliver Bond House, already addressed concerns around a loss of units, as it would provide 39 new homes, which ensures a total increase in units during Phase 1 of the original regeneration plan.
“It’s extremely frustrating that everyone has tried to be proactive. I think residents have engaged with the Regeneration Forum in good faith as well over the past several years," he said.
The feeling in the community ranges from “anger to frustration” according to Cllr Ó Meachair who said people were already sceptical that the regeneration would come to fruition and now the funding refusal has taken away what little hope they had left. “People have seen this area neglected for decades, and I suppose everyone is hoping for the best but the Minister hasn’t really given anyone any hope anymore.”
While the Department and Dublin City Council continue to negotiate the specifics of unit numbers and funding disagreements, Nicola is still hearing rats squeal, while David navigates the stairs. With hope at an all-time low in Oliver Bond, the residents are left waiting on a commitment that always seems to be just out of sight.
When contacted for comment, the Department of Housing stated that they fully support the regeneration of older flat complexes such as Oliver Bond House, but the current proposal needs to be revised due to costs. Their full statement is as follows:
"The Department cannot support the significant reduction of homes as proposed by DCC – going from 74 down to 46 for the three blocks proposed – this would represent a 38% reduction of homes – all of which are currently tenanted. The cost of such reductions do not represent value for money and would leave 28 households without a home.
"In line with recently approved plan for regeneration of Pearse House, the Department has requested that DCC update the latest Oliver Bond proposal to provide for a deep retrofit of the existing flats and houses while ensuring that there is not a significant reduction in homes.
"It is noted that some of the existing flats fall short of the minimum apartment floor areas for the current usage/bedspaces. 45 of the 74 homes across the three blocks proposed for regeneration are two-bedroom flats with an average size of 49.48 sq. m. with no flat smaller than 48 sq. m. 27 of the flats have one bedroom and an average size of 39 sq. m. with no flat smaller than 37.7 sq. m.
"As part of the deep retrofit of such flats the department recommends that flats be reconfigured for the appropriate bedspaces for the existing floor areas; e.g. convert small two-bedroom flats to standard size one-bedroom homes for couples.
"DCC are currently working on a proposal to build new homes on the adjoining Bridgefoot Street site and also to demolish three of the Oliver Bond blocks. This will afford the Council the opportunity to provide the needed larger 3-bedroom homes to accommodate over-crowding issues at Oliver Bond House."
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