'Derelict and damaged' - questions over local housing in Waterford

The local housing crisis was discussed at the last Metropolitan meeting of 2024.

Councillor Donal Barry (Independent) spoke about the number of boarded up houses in one unnamed Waterford estate. 

He said: "One-third of the houses in one small estate were boarded up or fire damaged. During a housing crisis it is extremely worrying how our housing stock and estates are managed." 

Cllr Barry asked: "Why are there so many houses boarded up in one small estate? What is the tenancy management doing to address the issues?"

Senior Officer Claire Hartley said: "I don't want to get into naming an estate [...] we have utilised the choice-based letting system and we have quite a lot of interest in four of the five of those properties. 

"We do now intend to go to tender and to allocate those properties. I don't want to actually name them because there's a sensitivity around that."

According to the latest housing report, Waterford City and County Council received 1,667 applications for local authority housing within the period of January to November 2024. 477 of these applications were approved. 

Councillor Mary Roche (Social Democrats) raised a query over homeless services in the city. 

Cllr Roche said: "The day and evening provision for people who are in the homeless hostel in Bath Street, particularly this time of year when it's cold and dark, there's an increasing amount of people waiting to get into the hostel.

She added: "It isn't fair to be asking people to hang around in the dark and cold and it's not good enough. I think we actually need to go the next level in terms of our provision or at least start planning for it."

Ms Hartley responded: "It is something we are constantly reviewing. We have updated capacity at McGwire House and I will certainly request that all Ireland and our own Integrated Homeless Services team review that."