50 SOCIAL HOUSES YET TO BE ALLOCATED

HOUSES IN MILLSTREET EMPTY FOR UP TO FOUR YEARS - CLLR O’SHEA

THERE are 50 houses still to be allocated to social housing applicants in the North Cork area with more than 50 bids on some of the properties, it was disclosed this week.

And four houses in Millstreet have been lying empty for four years, Councillor John Paul O’Shea has told The Corkman.

Cllr O’Shea appealed for the allocation of the houses at this week’s meeting of the Northern Area committee of Cork County Council.

He had previously highlighted the inertia in allocating social houses to housing list applicants as a consequence of the delay in appointing a replacement for the North Cork Housing Officer after the previous post holder had taken up a new position back in May.

Welcoming the newly appointed replacement, Máire O’Sullivan, Cllr O’Shea said she was ‘a great appointment’ and would do ‘great work’.

But he also outlined the task facing the new appointee.

“I do want to ask the director of housing and the manager here this morning to ensure all the backlog of houses will be allocated before Christmas,” he said.

“There’s a significant backlog of houses still in place to be allocated and it’s important that the people who have bid on these houses since May would get the opportunity whether they’ve been successful or not prior to Christmas so, fingers crossed, we can make progress here in the next couple of weeks.”

In response, the Housing Directorate representative at the meeting, Seamus de Faoite, acknowledged that there was a backlog and that the allocation of property was not something that could be rushed, either, and that there were checks which had to be carried out, including Garda checks on prospective tenants.

“All I can say is that we are working through that list,” he said.

In reference to the list of available properties for which tenants are being considered, Cllr O’Shea said it was “particularly worrying” that four properties in St Joseph’s Gardens in Millstreet, which are under the remit of the housing association Respond, had been vacant for up to four years.

“I think having four houses idle and vacant in Millstreet in St. Joseph’s Gardens for up to four years is quite worrying and I think it’s something that should be looked at sincerely,” he said, adding that there was a ‘concern’ over approved housing bodies and their CAS (Capital Assistance funding) applications.

He pointed out that some of these housing bodies were geared for elderly people only and that people over 50 were classed as elderly for the purpose of these applications.

The Housing Directorate officer pointed out that while there were limitations in relation to CAS applications, there other schemes which could be used and are used on which there are no such limitations.