Louth council to buy up abandoned homes to be used for social housing

Louth County Council believes it is the first local authority in Ireland to buy up abandoned privately-owned houses that were attracting anti-social behaviour and instead use them for social housing.

It is on target to purchase 24 such units by the end of the year.

Director of services, Joe McGuinness, said that the council had been “conscious of a number of vacant and almost derelict units in our own estates that were in private ownership and were the source of anti-social behaviour or were attracting anti-social behaviour and were negatively contributing to the estate management of the area.”