Vetting process for Waterford social housing slammed as 'useless'

The vetting process for social housing applicants needs to be more robust, Cllr Declan Clune says.

He added that as a local representative he is spending a disproportionate amount of time dealing with antisocial behaviour issues from tenants in the constituency.

He made the case last week to senior management at Waterford City and County Council to implement additional measures and checks to ensure local houses are allocated to suitable candidates.

He described the current vetting process as “broken and useless”.

“I don’t think our current application form is sufficiently robust,” he added.

“I don’t think it's protecting the Council or existing residents from any issues that arise due to the allocation of an unsuitable tenant.

“The vast majority of issues are coming from people who are not local to the area, who we’ve put into houses with minimum checks and then we’re left to clean up the mess.

“Can we not proactively put in additional checks of some description to make sure we nip unsuitable candidates in the bud and that we put people in who deserve housing and appreciate housing.

“We have to include more checks, otherwise we’re swimming against the tide and we’re wasting each other’s time.” 

Seamus De Faoite, Waterford Council Director of Services with responsibility for housing, denied Cllr Clune’s claims, saying that there is a process in place to ensure suitable tenants receive houses.

“I totally don’t accept the points raised," Mr. De Faoite said.

"There are formal processes in place. Everybody who is allocated a property goes through a process in relation to being eligible for social housing."