The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
IT WILL take 31 years to clear the housing waiting list in Clare at the current rate people are being accommodated, writes Conor Clohessy.
Councillor Ian Lynch noted that while there are 22 fewer names on the list for council housing in Clare this year than last, there are another 817 still on it.
He also noted that the number of vacant properties is 40, the same as it was last year, with Traveller accommodation vacancies included in this figure that had not been accounted previously.
Councillor Lynch expressed major concern regarding large families; there are 41 applicants for houses with more than three bedrooms he noted expressing his frustration before the recent West Clare MD meeting.
“I appreciate that every case is different and sensitive, but we need to step back from the black-and-white around this. These children need homes,” said the Independent.
“I met a family in 2020 whose only wish for Christmas was to have a home – I thought that 12 months on, we’d be in a position to offer them that. At the end of this month, that family are out of that property and have no place to go, to the point of sending their children to live with relatives and keep roofs over their heads.”
Councillor Lynch was supported in his questioning of the housing system by Cathaoirleach Cillian Murphy, who told the meeting: “I was contacted recently by someone who has a former council house, expressing that they have a social conscience and wish to sell the house back.”
“It’s in a council estate and we’re not allowed to buy it. There is an absolute guarantee that this house will be sold as a second home or holiday home, a three-bedroom house that could be put back into our housing stock at a very reasonable cost. Instead, we’ll spend €300,000 building a similar house in a new estate. It really shows the insanity in the system.”
Siobhan McNulty, Senior Executive Officer with the Housing Department, explained that larger properties are more difficult to secure funding for from the Dáil due to the focus on building three-bedroom houses and the considerations surrounding zoning.
She added that the Housing Department is keeping families from homeless services as best they can, but appreciated the conditions that families on the verge of such alternatives must endure.
Ms McNulty continued that the council is bound to bring each property to the minimum renting standard as well as following energy efficiency protocols while the properties are vacant. She cited this as the reason for delays allocating vacancies to families.
“We also can’t allocate to a scenario that would lead to an overcrowding. If a family has been approved on the housing family for four bedrooms, they are only being considered for that.
“There are situations where smaller children can share beds or there are babies involved, and we can reassess to ensure the family does not become homeless, but in the main the guidelines are very strong around those situations.”
She also replied to Cathaoirleach Murphy’s points, expecting that the council’s allowance for acquisition of property in 2022 will be in the low single figures.
This is due to the local authority’s inability to compete against first-time buyers in bids on property.
She also noted that the Housing Department hopes to be on-site at the council’s construction projects in Ennistymon by September of this year, a deadline she admitted is ambitious but can be reached with the co-operation of local councillors.
Councillor Lynch hoped that moving further into 2022, some of the rightful frustrations of the public might be serviced, though he asked that the difficulties faced by the council themselves are appreciated.
