Hundreds on housing lists refuse offer of home

HUNDREDS of people on local authority housing lists turned down homes last year because the properties were not in the right area or were too small.

The refusal rate of accommodation in Galway was a massive 43% for the year, with 121 refusals recorded from social housing applicants and 160 properties accepted.

The most common reason for turning a property down was because it was not big enough or located in the correct suburb, or that the applicant did not like the area.

More than 100 people refused housing in county Cork, with reasons varying from its location to the size of the dwelling or issues with new neighbours.

In south Cork, the refusal rate was up 20%, with 79 people refusing housing, and 396 being allocated.

In Dublin, 85 people on the housing list of Fingal county council declined offers of properties this year, while 58 applicants from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council turned down homes.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said it did not keep statistics on how many social housing units have been refused or on how many people have refused social housing units, but said an applicant who refuses what the city council considers to be a reasonable offer of a dwelling, without a satisfactory explanation, may have their application deferred for six months.

Meanwhile, local authorities around the country are dealing with high levels of complaints in relation to antisocial behaviour.

Dublin City Council received 1,731 complaints to October last year, while Fingal received 520 allegations of antisocial behaviour. A spokesman for the evictions office of Dublin City Council said 15 people were evicted from local authority housing last year because of antisocial behaviour — half of the total number of evictions and up by five on the previous year.

“It is a very long process to evict someone,” said a spokesman. “And there has to be a number of complaints from different people verified by the guards.

“They are usually in relation to drug dealing, or drug and alcohol abuse,” he said.

In the midlands, Athlone Town Council received 137 complaints in relation to antisocial behaviour.

A spokesman said the vast majority of them are at the lower end of the scale and involve — among other things domestic disputes with neighbours — car parking issues, noise pollution, loud music, and late night parties. “Most of these issues are addressed by way of mediation or warning letters and generally do not cause ongoing problems,” he said.

But, he said, there are a number of more serious issues involving crime, criminal damage, drug use and sale of drugs, assault and violence, which have resulted in some evictions and repossessions.

A total of 15 houses were repossessed in Athlone in 2008 — the same number of evictions in the Dublin City Council area.

In Cork city, there were only 14 complaints regarding antisocial behaviour as defined in the antisocial behaviour policy.

This figure seems to contradict Garda figures, which last year showed an average of 12 children and adults are being issued with antisocial behaviour warnings every month in Cork city.