Housing policy needs more compassion and fairness - Waterford Councillors say
Housing lists and income thresholds is a cause of concern amongst local councillors.
Currently, to be eligible for social housing, your income must be below a certain threshold.
The maximum net income (after tax) for a single person in Waterford is now €35,000.
Councillors this week criticised the harshness of the limits, saying that if applicants verge even slightly over the limit they are removed from the housing list.
Cllr Donal Barry described the limits as "too rigid", saying: "This is an issue of fairness and compassion in our housing policy when removing housing applicants from the housing list if their income goes slightly over the threshold. This approach is ignoring individual circumstance. I think we need a more compassionate approach. When there is someone who goes slightly over the limit, the housing staff should sit down with them and review in detail every weeks wage package for the last two weeks to distinguish between temporary and permanent changes. I'm asking that this policy be reviewed and improved to support fairness, a bit of humanity and more importantly a bit of common sense to our housing system."
Cllr Catherine Burke supported Cllr Barry's views, saying that she has two constituents in her area who have verged just €20 over the threshold.
"They have now been told that they're not eligible to be on the housing list" Cllr Burke said. Meanwhile, Cllr Joe Kelly suggested that the Council's housing policy take into account sudden income increases which housing applicants receive.
"My view is simple enough, when the state increase allowances through the budget and other means, then those increases should be applied to our housing limits," he said. "Currently if someone gets an increase from social welfare, they may be penalised for it and removed from our housing list. Instead we should automatically be able to apply the same percentage increase to our limit."
