€1.6m fund to buy and renovate houses

OVER €1.6m has been allocated to Wexford County Council to buy vacant properties in the New Ross district over the next two and a half years.

Housing Officer Padraig O’Gorman said under the Buy and Renew scheme, the council will be buying housing units in need of repair to make them available for social housing use. The scheme focusses on older stock that can be repaired withing three to six months as the council aims to tackle dereliction in towns like New Ross.

The scheme is designed to complement a Repair and Lease scheme as the council can approach owners of vacant, privately owned houses in need of repair, with the option to either lease or repair the unit, or to buy and repair it.

The council’s Buy and Renew projections for New Ross for this year are for three properties, and five for 2018 and a further five in 2019.

Mr O’Gorman said the challenges for Wexford County Conucil include finding suitable properties where a housing need exists, the timely delivery of the houses dealing with issues of joint ownership, title issues and disputes over owneship and rising house prices.

He said benefits to house owners include achieving income from an otherwise vacant property and that there is no auctioneer or advertising costs.

A maximum of €40,000 will be spent on renovating houses which will be ‘clawed back’ over a number of years.

‘We asked for expressions of interest to be sent in to us from potential property owners and we will bring them up to the standards required.’

The council will buy properties at their market value and carry out repairs, Mr O’Gorman said.

The minimum lease period is for a decade.

‘At the moment we have expressins of interest for 40 units spread across the county. In New Ross we have six which are at various stages. We’ve been up and running since March and we’re looking for any property owners who have a property suitable for the scheme to contact us.’

Cllr Michael Sheehan said there are 16 units in the Mercy in Irishtown which are under the auspices of Respond and have been vacant since 2014 or 2015.

‘Given the homeless crisis and that every B&B we use is close to full and that we’re accommodating people from outside the district in B&Bs and houses, a greater emphasis is needed to put these places into use.’

Mr O’Gorman said he had only become aware of the 16 units and was due to have a meeting about their use the following day with Respond.

‘I don’t know why they have been vacant for the last coulpe of years,’ he said.

Cllr Sheehan called for the units to be used as step down, temporary accommodations, adding: ‘I think it’s going to be very difficult to get people to live there on a full-time basis.’