*Social housing in Quilty.
IT WILL TAKE 31 years to alleviate the social housing waiting list in West Clare, a county councillor has warned.
Across the West Clare Municipal District, a total of 682 applicants are on the social housing waiting list, the number equates to the amount of households as opposed to persons.
Ennistymon/Lahinch (159) is the first area of choice for 23 percent of applicants followed by Kilrush (127), Miltown Malbay/Mullagh/Quilty (84), Kilkee/Cross/Carrigaholt (80), Corofin/Ruan (74), Lisdoonvarna/Ballyvaughan (48), Cooraclare/Doonbeg (42), Kildysart/Ballynacally (30), Kilmihil (18), Kilmaley (12), Kilfenora (8) and an additional four are for unspecified locations.
Greatest demand (75%) is recorded for two-bedroom properties in the West Clare MD, the bulk of the demand once again is for Ennistymon and Lahinch. Almost a fifth (19%) of applicants have requested a three-bedroom property, the majority of these pressing for Kilrush. The town is also the most chosen when it comes to the 4% of applicants seeking a four-bedroom property.
There is a total of 899 properties on Clare County Council’s housing stock for the West Clare MD, 40 of which are vacant. The unoccupied houses are in Kilrush (13), Ennistyon/Lahinch (11), Corofin/Ruan (5), Kilkee/Cross/Carrigaholt (4), Miltown Malbay/Mullagh/Quilty (3), Lisdoonvarna/Ballyvaughan (2), Cooraclare/Doonbeg (1) and Kilfenora (1).
One third (33%) of the vacant properties are derelict, they are located in Kilrush (7), Corofin/Ruan (2), Kilkee/Cross/Carrigaholt (2), Ennistymon/Lahinch (1) and Kilfenora (1). Officials in the Council’s housing section target returning standard voids to stock in a one to fifteen week period while the timeframe for derelict properties is one to twelve months, the delay from this is due to “Japanese knotweed, structural issues, funding approval and other issues that arise in older derelict properties,” senior executive officer with the Council’s social directorate, Siobhán McNulty explained. Works are ongoing to return 22 standard voids and 14 derelict voids to stock in the West Clare MD, she confirmed.
Presently, 65 units of direct builds are in the pipeline for delivery across the West Clare MD in 2022 and 2023. Construction on a social housing scheme of 20 units in Miltown Malbay commenced in December 2020 and is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2022. Development of a 30 unit estate in Ennistymon is to begin in the third quarter of this year and targets work concluding in the final quarter of 2023, stage one has been approved by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.
Delivery of eight social housing units in Doonbeg has been “impacted by a Judicial Review and until such time as that is concluded we cannot establish a commencement date for the project,” McNulty outlined. Stage two approval had been granted by the Department with the Part VIII process currently under judicial review.
Providing accommodation “to meet the needs of larger families remains challenging that said all new schemes takes account of the housing need in an area. In all new schemes this Council reviews the housing need in the area to match the need,” Ms McNulty stated. She added, “There are 31 households approved for a 4 bedroomed property 24 of whom are currently in accommodation and are approved transfer applicants. A business case is required to secure funding for larger house types from the DHLGH as the primary need is for 2 bed properties and this needs to be balanced to meet the permissible site density”.
Kilrush based Cllr Ian Lynch (IND) who sought information on the figures before the West Clare MD noted that there were seven more vacant properties in the past year and 22 less persons on the housing list. “It will take 31 years to alleviate the housing list based on what we achieved last year,” he stated. “My big concern is around the large families, every case is sensitive and different,” he said. He expressed hope that 2022 would turn out to be a better year when it comes to rehoming people across West Clare.
A similar sentiment was expressed by Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF), “families with large amount of kids are not catered for in the system from what I can see”. He referenced an “insanity in the system” as he detailed that the local authority was unable to buy a former Council house in a Council estate. He stated, “it is a three-bedroom house, it would be bought reasonable and put back into our housing stock at a reasonable cost, instead we’ll go off spending over €300,000 building a new house in a new estate, it is absolutely bananas”.
With detailed design yet to be completed for the 30-unit estate in Ennistymon, Cllr Shane Talty (FF) admitted, “I couldn’t see how we’d be ready to start construction by this year”. He believed the “sheer volume of applicants waiting for housing” did not make for “pretty reading”.
Responding to the comments of the councillors, Ms McNulty acknowledged the amount of data put forward, “We don’t want to be comparing apples and bananas”. She said that Traveller accommodation and vacant properties were not included in the 2021 data cited by Cllr Lynch, six of the applications are for Traveller accommodation, she confirmed.
On the difficulties for large families, she commented, “the demand for four-bedroom properties is not as significant albeit for those in need of housing it is significant. We’re funded by the Dept of Housing, in the main two and three-bed is what is being permitted for funding”. She said “quite a number of people” were working with the families trying to source housing. “As a housing authority, we are bound to ensure every property is at rentable standard, when properties are vacant we do energy efficiency works to maximise funding to do the works to the properties”.
Regarding the ongoing projects, she said work was proceeding with Miltown, “it is our intention to be on site in September at Ennistymon,” the housing official added.
