'Being on the housing list for nearly eight years was a nightmare'

Lisa O’Sullivan, who is almost completely blind, was on the housing list in Cork for nearly eight years before she was eventually housed by a housing association.

Lisa, 34, has limited mobility and a string of other disabilities including diabetes and a rare liver condition.

Originally from Dripsey in Co Cork, she was living in the city in rented accommodation but as her eyesight deteriorated, the 14 steps that led to her flat and the stairs up to her first-floor bathroom became increasingly dangerous. She was constantly falling.

However, suitable accommodation that would take rent supplement couldn’t be found in the city, so Lisa was forced to move to West Cork where she could rent a ground-floor flat.

“The people were lovely to me but it was crazy. I needed to attend the National Council for the Blind [NCBI] a lot but if I didn’t get the 7.30am bus to Cork from Dunmanway, I could forget about it for the rest of the day,” she said.

There are currently 15,018 households waiting for a home in Cork.

At one stage, when it was still allowed, Lisa was on the city and county housing lists. “I was offered a flat by the city council but it was an upstairs flat and that is no good to me. It’s not safe with my sight. Then I was offered Mayfield but it was too far away from my mum who is sick and deteriorating.”

In the end, she opted to stay on the Cork County Council list.

She had almost given up hope of ever leaving Dunmanway when, earlier this year, she was offered housing by Clúid in Ballincollig.

“They are individual units in a place that gives me great accessibility to my family and my friends and the NCBI who are based in Ballincollig. It’s been a huge relief for me eventually knowing that I have my own home. It’s a feeling of security that I had begun to think I would never have.

“It is a nightmare having to battle with the local authorities all the time when you are on the housing list. You’re ringing and ringing and a lot of the time, not getting a response.”

The chances of getting a house a local authority are slim these days. Spending by the State on social housing, new builds, and renovations fell by 72% between 2008 and 2012.

Waiting lists increased by 75% between 2008 and 2011 from 56,249 to 98,318. And so it’s to housing associations that people are turning.

Before the crisis bit, the Department of the Environment paid a 100% grant to the housing associations to build or buy homes. Now, it’s 30%. By reducing their involvement in public housing projects, the State is following the European model but according to Simon Brooke, head of policy with Clúid, it’s doing it at breakneck speed. “When the funding system changed in the UK, it took 20 years to go from 100% to 50% funding.

“Here, virtually overnight it has gone from 100% to 30%.”