Waterford housing woes: 'People sleeping in doorways, it’s just scandalous'
Councillor Joe O'Riordan said at the January district council meeting that it is very hard to help people facing homelessness. Stock Image.
A Dungarvan councillor has described the state of housing in Ireland as “absolutely shocking” and “soul-destroying”.
Speaking at the January sitting of the Dungarvan-Lismore District Council, Councillor Joe O’Riordan said that he finds it very difficult to help people.
“I think it’s absolutely shocking the state of housing in this country, and you know, I see it every day, a chap living in a car in Quanns like whether it’s by choice or whatever, but it’s just a sad indictment of the country when you see what’s going on.
“Record homeless figures, people around the country sleeping in doorways, it’s just scandalous,” said Cllr O’Riordan.
The councillor pointed out that there were 286 new applicants to the housing list last year and just 53 new tenancies.
That means, he said there were 233 applicants as well as the existing list that did not get a place.
He asked the council’s housing representative, Senior Architect Walter Holden, how many houses the council intended to build and if they knew why there had been a spike in social housing applications.
“It’s obvious that the gap between people’s aspirations for social housing and actually attaining it is widening dramatically.
“Like it's soul-destroying for the applicants, people who are on the list for seven, eight, nine, ten years, you know and indeed for councillors, because we are the first port to call for people looking for a house.
“People come to us, they are crying on the phone and they are really upset and we can't give them the answers,” said Cllr O’Riordan.
Mr Holden said that between new builds, acquisitions, and leasing, the council allocates 400 to 500 units countywide.
But when asked by Cllr O’Riordan about the Dungarvan-Lismore district, Mr Holden said he did not have the figure.
Director of Services (Planning, Corporate, Culture, HR & IS) Ivan Grimes, offered that a reason for an increase in applications might be changes to the social housing income threshold.
Cllr O’Riordan had asked if landlords leaving the market was a factor, and to that Mr Grimes said it was only speculation and the council do not collect that data.
However, Mr Holden said there is no spike in social housing applications.
“But just to be very clear, our figures are very level. Our figures are not significantly increasing on the housing list. If you look at the SSHA (Summary Social Housing Assessment) we are very very level.
“Might go up and down very little in the overall scheme of things for the housing need,” said Mr Holden.
