Cork County Council buying 73 properties to stop eviction of tenants

Cork County Council says the move will stop the eviction of tenants — many of whom are families.

Cork County Council is in the process of purchasing 73 properties from private landlords in a bid to stop the tenants from being evicted.

Seamus de Faoite, the county council’s senior executive officer for housing, said the local authority has already purchased, or is finalising plans to acquire, 73 homes that private landlords have agreed to sell to the local authority. Mr de Faoite says the move will stop the eviction of tenants — many of whom are families.

In a deal struck with the Government, the county agreed to make 60 property acquisitions to keep existing tenants in the properties. However, senior council officials and local public representatives are confident the Government will approve the additional 13 purchases in light of the ongoing housing crisis.

Council officials said it will take some time to finalise the legal transfers of all the properties but are confident the process is progressing.

Mr de Faoite announced the acquisition of the 73 properties at a meeting of the council’s Northern Division. 

Housing targets

Mr de Faoite also said the council has a target to complete 622 new homes this year to house those on the waiting list. The local authority is expected to get €58m from the Government to complete these units this year. Some will be its own builds while others will be direct purchase and leasing from developers and private landlords. There will also be collaborations on projects with voluntary housing associations. Cork County Council said it provided 551 new units last year.

Mr de Faoite told councillors that figures as of the end of last month showed the council has 40 families and 95 single people in emergency accommodation throughout the county.

The figures show that 12 families and 14 single people have been in such accommodation for up to six months.

There are 22 families and 53 single people in emergency accommodation for a period of six to 12 months, while six families and 28 single people have been in those facilities — usually hotels and B&Bs — for longer than a year.

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Mr de Faoite also gave councillors a breakdown of local authority houses in the North Cork region which are currently vacant because work has to be undertaken on them to bring them up to proper standard for renting to new tenants.

This showed that 2.45% of the council’s housing stock is currently not in use for this reason.

He said there are 2,768 local authority houses in that region and 68 are currently lying idle.

Fianna Fáil councillor Deirdre O’Brien said while 68 vacant properties might seem like a relatively small number, it still means there is a large number of vacant homes and she said it is imperative that refurbishment work is carried out at a quicker pace.

Fine Gael councillor John Paul O’Shea pointed out that the council has a number of fully-serviced housing sites in the region which are still lying idle and urged the council to act.

Officials said the council has started building affordable houses at several locations around the county which will be made available at a significantly lower cost than market value. This programme has been designed to cater for those who can’t get mortgage approval, but earn too much to qualify for social housing.

Mr de Faoite confirmed they're looking at further suitable sites for affordable housing in Fermoy, Youghal, and Bantry.