835 houses not enough to solve crisis - Wadding
WEXFORD Municipal District council’s plans to provide 835 homes for people over the next three years will not meet the need of people on huge waiting lists in the area, a councillor has warned.
Mick Doyle of the housing department said the housing stock stands at 1,419 in the Wexford district, along with 155 RAS units, 35 leased units and 20 Housing Assistance Payment (HAPS) units.
The current number of applicants seeking housing supports from Wexford County Council is 1,119.
The Social, Housing Supply Programme for 2017 to 2019 has allocated funding for the delivery of 835 housing units in the Wexford district over the three years.
Mr Doyle said: ‘We have a lot of construction, more than in other districts, because of the land banks we have.’
He said four new district foremen have been appointed for across the county, including one for Wexford, while some general operatives have also been taken on by Wexford County Council.
Cllr Jim Moore asked how the council evaluates how contractors in its employ are performing on their jobs. He expressed concern that some jobs may be left ‘on the sideline’, given the increased workload for contractors as of late. ‘If we are using too many, we may end up having a problem,’ Cllr Moore said.
Mr Doyle said: ‘We had a programme in place to try to deal with estates that had not been attended to for a number of years and we tried to ensure we had an allocation to deal with things like footpaths. We received a knock with the 2014 and 2015 amalgamation as it was only then that we realised how poor all of the stock was.’
Mr Doyle said in 2015 the council had around 70 contractor, but today it is using 15. ‘We found that the newer guys weren’t able to compete. We are still getting fantastic prices; they’ve gone slightly up in the past year.’
Cllr Davy Hynes said: ‘ The funding is not there, in general, from local government.’
Cllr Deirdre Wadding equated the council’s funding woes to running a household, saying: ‘You can’t cover everything that needs to be done with the income that is there.’
She said 93 per cent of calls from social housing tenants are classified as urgent. ‘Some of these people have growing families, so rather than seek a transfer to a bigger house, they might want to extend into their attic. If they are prepared to take on increased rent, is that acceptable?’
Cllr Ger Carthy asked if the council has the money to do all it has set out in its three year programme.
‘We have that funding and we have been given an additional alloctaion for 30 more houses. The construction phases have to go through assessment and sustainability. Out of the €5.5 billion Rebuilding Ireland housing budget, €180m is what we are expecting,’ Mr Doyle replied.
Cllr Hynes said the council’s finances are in crisis. ‘Every day of the week people are threatened with eviction and homelessness,’ he said.
Cllr Wadding said even if there were no more social housing applicants in 2018 and 2019, 835 houses is not enough to meet the demand, adding that there is an over reliance on the rental market.
Cllr Wadding said under HAP payments were made directly to landlords to make up a shortfall in rent. ‘It’s very difficult for people to cope with the increase in rent.’
Senior housing officer Padraig O’Gorman said not every housing applicant on the list wants a house. ‘ They could be on it to get a grant or another allowance. We have a highly ambitious programme. We don’t think we will solve the housing crisis, but this will make substantial improvements.’
Cllr Moore said: ‘It’s just as well we didn’t cut our budget by 15 per cent,’ alluding to a suggestion made by several Independent councillors, including Cllr Wadding. He said she was trivilaising the matter.
‘ That is not where the root of the problem is,’ an incensed Cllr Wadding shot back.
‘We know very well who is responsible for the misery in this country. Don’t you dare accuse me of trivialising this. I am far from trivialising the experiences of women and children in this country that was decimated by these (parties),’ slamming down her pen.
Cllr Tony Dempsey said although the programme of works will not solve the housing problem in the county, it will go a long way towards improving things.
Taking the heat out of the row Cllr Moore withdrew his trivialisation remark.
Mr Doyle said the housing department has a high closure rate of calls regarding housing queries.
He said new heating systems are being installed in houses on John’s Gate Street in time for next winter. ‘We have the old gunbarrel types and a fortnight ago they stopped (working) altogether. The tender is about to go for the heating.’
He said the council needs to run an education campaign higlighting the need for people in social housing to report whenever a chimney fire occurs.
‘People are having chimney fires and not letting us know. It is costing us 5,000 to €6,000 to pay for these call outs and is having a huge impact on our budget.’
He said the council is working with the fire department on the chimney issue, adding that the local authority is alerted every time they are called out on a chimney fire call out.