Not a single council home built in Galway in five years

The housing waiting list has broken the 4,000 mark, yet not one council house has been built in five years.

City Hall’s current records show there are 4,041 people who applied for a council house according to a breakdown of the housing waiting list given in answer to a question submitted by Sinn Féin Councillor Mairéad Farrell.

That is after 1,900 applicants were removed overnight following an audit two years ago.

The average waiting time for a council house or flat was a minimum of eight years – for those applying for a three-bed on the eastside – right up to 12 years which was what faced those on the Westside who were holding out for a one or two-bed property.

Some 1,567 were on the list because they were unable to afford private sector rent due to being dependent on the rent supplement.

The other biggest group of people hoping for a council house were those living in unsuitable accommodation. Some 558 were sharing accommodation involuntarily while 317 had some sort of disability that rendered their current living arrangements unsuitable.

A total of 189 were classed as homeless or living in an institution or emergency accommodation such as a hostel.

In the past five years, not one house was built. 2003 was the boom time when it came to the council building its own accommodation – the local authority constructed a total of 852 units in the past 14 years, 292 of them in 2003. In 2009 the council built 83 units, marginally better than 2000 when there were 81 properties built.

In answer to another question submitted by Cllr Farrell, the council revealed there were 27 properties under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) withdrawn by the owners in 2014.

The number of properties secured for the scheme was just seven last year, while 63 had rent reviews renegotiated for the period.

The average monthly rent paid for RAS accommodation secured from the private rental market was €655 for a one-bedroom property, €715 for a two-bed, €777 for a three-bed and €886 for a four-bedroom flat or house.

The fact that no building had occurred since 2009 under the reign of the present Coalition was a shocking endictment on Government’s housing strategy, insisted Cllr Farrell.

“We’re in a real crisis situation, particularly in Galway City. Clearly the fact we’re not building houses we’re becoming more reliant on the private sector but the figures show we have 20 less for last year – that’s another 20 families forced into the private market,” she stated.

“I know some of the people who have contacted me are told to move in with family, but we can see there are 558 already involuntarily sharing, some of them must be in a awful situation – it’s just not viable for some people to do that.

“The only thing that’s going to alleviate this crisis is to build housing. It’s the biggest issue for my constituents. There is a real sense of no hope – and you can see why when you get figures showing not one house has been built in five years.”

A Housing Need Assessment (HNA) exactly two years ago saw 1,900 applicants for social housing struck off the list, bringing those deemed to have a housing need to 3,100. Before the compulsory audit, Galway City Council’s housing waiting list stood at just over 5,000 – the highest ever in the history of the city’s housing waiting lists.

The vast majority of the 1,900 applicants removed were people who did not respond to the HNA letters and did not return the forms correctly. Some of the applicants are thought to have emigrated, others could have died.