Clare County Council admits its facing a huge task in reducing the county’s social housing list.
The latest figures show almost 900 families or individuals in the county have no home of their own.
That’s despite the confirmation today that 51 families on the social housing list are moving into new homes in Ennis and Sixmilebridge ahead of Christmas.
873 applicants for social housing don’t have their own home.
Many of these are individuals, but more are family units, meaning there are well over 1,000 people here who the Council describes as having a need for housing.
The local authority is also helping out nearly 2,000 other applicants through the HAP and RAS schemes, or through short- or long-term home leases
Director of Services for Social Development with Clare County Council, Liam Conneally, says they’re doing what they can to tackle what he’s described as a huge problem, though he admits it’s taken too long for social housing to be build here.
500 people have presented as homeless in Clare this year.
53 adults and 56 children here are living in emergency accommodation such as hotels and B&Bs, and a recent investigation by Gardaí found one rough sleeper.
Liam Conneally says that one person is one too many and he’s reassuring that the local authority is doing everything in it’s power to provide homes to those who need them.
But for 51 families in the county, a Christmas gift has arrived early in the form of a new home.
Two new housing schemes have been developed in Ennis and Sixmilebridge by Co-operative Housing Ireland in partnership with Clare County Council, with NAMA also playing a role.
The families moving into the homes have been drawn from the county’s social housing list, with some taken out of overcrowded accommodation or homelessness.
CEO of Co-operate Housing Ireland, Kieron Brennan says was in Sixmilebridge today to hand over the properties – he says they’d like to do more, but a shortage of land is preventing them from delivering even more projects like this.
