Housing idea for single people - Two’s company

ONE of the unfortunate side effects of the housing crisis is that single people find it especially difficult to get a home, especially from a local authority.

This reality persists despite the fact that around half of the 2,210 people who want a council home in Cork have asked for one-bed units.

It is more than unlikely that their needs can be met anytime soon — especially under current policies which decree that the council no longer builds single-occupancy units.

“They’re being abandoned,” said one councillor at a meeting yesterday.

Desperate situations require imaginative solutions and the proposal that like-minded people come together and apply for council houses that can accommodate more than one person may well be one.

In an ideal world, wherever that is, this might be a less than perfect proposal but today it might be a reasonable halfway house until local authorities can again offer homes to single people.

However, the take-home message must be that the decision to allow the market provide all our housing needs has proved catastrophic.