New polls show backing for 'right to housing' and high satisfaction levels among social housing tenants 

Building workers on the Elsmore housing estate at Naas Co Kildare which includes social housing. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

New surveys show strong public support for a constitutional right to housing and high satisfaction among social housing tenants as to the quality of their accommodation.

A new opinion poll published by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) found that 64% of people consider Ireland needs a 'Right to Housing' in the Constitution, while 82% of people said they consider housing to be a basic human right.

Overwhelming Public Support for Human Rights Protections as Ireland Marks #HumanRightsDay

64% Consider Ireland Needs a #RighttoHousing in Constitution

79% Consider Discrimination Related to your Background Should be Made Illegalhttps://t.co/oF6pzGHejQ@ennhri @equineteurope

— Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (@_IHREC) December 10, 2020

The poll was published to mark World Human Rights Day and also showed that 79% of people said discrimination related to a person's background should be made illegal.

It comes as a separate poll, this time conducted by the Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), found high satisfaction levels among tenants as to the standard of their homes, and a desire by most to ultimately be able to buy the place where they live.

The ICSH published the results of the 2020 Social Housing Tenant Satisfaction Survey, which found that 90% of participating housing association tenants are satisfied with the services they receive.

ICSH 2020 Tenant Satisfaction Survey, 90% of those asked were satisfied with the services they receive.'ICSH members have stepped up in 2020 to ensure tenants feel safe and secure in their affordable homes' #housingassociations #AHBshttps://t.co/UKzNh1zbYB

— ICSH (@icsh_ie) December 10, 2020

Tenants identified good quality housing (93%), efficient repairs service (88%) and estate management (82%) as the most important services provided by their housing association.

The survey also found that half of the tenants surveyed considered it important to be able to one day buy their own home, including 73% of those between the ages of 18-45. However, 44% of tenants surveyed did not feel it was important to own a home one day.

There was also broad satisfaction with energy efficiency levels in the social housing occupied by those surveyed, but those questioned said the handling of anti-social behaviour by housing associations is an area in need of improvement. There was a 70% satisfaction level, but with reduced levels of satisfaction likely to be linked to an increased awareness of local disturbances as more people work from home, and have spent a greater amount of time socialising outdoors this year.

Donal McManus, Chief Executive Officer, Irish Council for Social Housing.

Donal McManus, ICSH Chief Executive, said: “Critically for 2020, and during what was an extremely challenging year for the sector, 81% of tenants stated that they were satisfied with services over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. ICSH members have stepped up in 2020 to ensure tenants feel safe and secure in their affordable homes.

“The fact that tenants have rated the quality and energy efficiency of their homes so highly is a very important metric. Since the first survey in 2017, our sector has increased its social housing stock by over 20%, and we have an important climate mitigation role to play, in terms of innovating with increasingly more energy-efficient homes, and rolling-out deep retrofits of our existing stock. The survey findings are overwhelmingly positive and a testament to the dedication of housing association teams managing almost 40,000 social homes across the length and breadth of Ireland."

A total of 504 15-minute telephone interviews, from 16 participating housing associations of varying size, were conducted for the survey.