New housing points system is introduced

WICKLOW County Council has adopted a new scheme of letting priorities due to the number of people waiting to be housed for ten years or more.

Applicants will be considered for a housing allocation based on a points system or priority status. Adjustments have also been made to the points system to reflect lengthy waits many people are having to endure.

The Housing SPC, chaired by Cllr John Snell, worked on the new scheme over a number of months before it was adopted by the full council.

Someone on the waiting list for one year will receive five points, with the points continuing to raise by a further five each year up until year five, by which time prospective council tenants would have accumulated 25 points.

From then, the points system would continue to grow each year by a single point up until year ten. Anyone waiting for eleven years or over will receive an additional five points, leaving them with 35 points, with one point added for each additional year you wait to a maximum of 35 years.

‘The scheme needed to be reviewed badly because of the number of people waiting for up to eight, ten or 12 years because of the lack of houses being constructed,’ said Cllr Snell. ‘The Government and the country are still playing catch-up. Previously, the points system only went up to ten years, meaning someone waiting for 12 or more years were on the same amount of points as someone on ten years.

‘You can also get points on medical grounds. It’s all very transparent, so now people should be able to analyse for themselves where they are points-wise.’

In certain circumstances, overall priority may be given to applicants that satisfy certain criteria, subject to the availability of suitable accommodation at the time.

Priority status would be given to families or persons living in dangerous premises on which a requisition under Section 3(9) of the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act 1964 has been served or due to displacement resulting from acts of the local authority.

Priority will also be given to families of persons rendered homeless through no fault of their own. A person shall be regarded as being homeless if there is no accommodation available which they can reasonably occupy or remain in occupation of or if the person is living in a hospital, county home, night shelter or such institutions while also that person, in the eyes of Wicklow County Council, is unable to provide accommodation from their own resources.

Other circumstances where priority status could be given are on exceptional medical grounds, compassionate grounds or persons aged 60 or over for Older Persons Accommodation. Where priority for housing accommodation is claimed on medical grounds, regard shall be had to reports from the relevant medical consultants.

An applicant may be refused a dwelling on the grounds of anti-social behaviour. Two refusals of ‘reasonable offers’ of social housing over 12 months will result in a household being deemed to have forfeited its place on a waiting list for a period of 12 months. This means that the household will not be offered social housing for the suspension period and this period will not subsequently count for ‘ time on list’ purposes.

Two refusals will also mean the household may lose rent supplement.

Tenants may apply for a transfer if they can demonstrate overcrowding, on medical and compassionate grounds and on the basis of anti-social behaviour whereby the Tenant Liaison Officer and a garda superintendent supports the transfer application. Other grounds for a transfer include where older persons wish to downsize and move to smaller accommodation.

Tenants seeking a transfer must have held the tenancy in their current building for at least two years, unless it is a temporary tenancy. They must also have a clear rent account, have kept their dwelling in satisfactory condition and complied with their tenancy agreement. They also must have no record of anti-social behaviour.