Housing issues for people with disabilities - Complaints of arbitrary discrimination
Some people with disabilities living in local authority housing feel they are discriminated against, according to the Disability Federation of Ireland, as it appears harder to secure funding for home improvement and adaptations.
Alison Ryan, support officer in Cork for the federation, claimed that those in private dwellings may find it easier to get the same work done with grant support.
Living in a private house means people can apply for a housing adaptation grant for people with a disability to have the work done, covering much of the cost and often securing a top-up loan from a lender.
Where the property is owned by the local authority, it is their responsibility to cover costs. Figures from some of the largest local authorities show a big gap between comparable levels of expenditure.
READ MORE: Poor access to disability officers in local authorities
As for the role of access officer, at local authority level at any rate, it can cover all sorts of ground if you require their services — but they can’t cross the threshold into your house.
According to the federation, there is now a need to clarify exactly what role an access officer has — and to think about expanding it.
Thesent questions to some of the largest urban local authorities in the country, asking how the role of access/disability officer (sometimes one and the same things, sometimes not) is interpreted, and the amount of expenditure on housing adaptation and improvements both for local authority residents and those works carried out in private dwellings.
Cork City Council said it appointed two access officers following the introduction of the 2005 legislation, with the role not extending to the adaptation of non-public buildings.
It received one complaint last year, relating to access to a council meeting, which was “resolved satisfactorily”. In addition, €4,000 was spent last year in the purchase of two access/height adjustable tables for the city’s library service.
When it came to housing adaptation projects, 220 have been completed in the past three years in local authority properties, as covered by disability grants. However, last year’s spend of €313,337 was less than half that in 2013.
In privately owned properties, 775 jobs have been done in the past three years, with almost €800,000 spent in 2012, €1.8m spent in 2013, and €1.5m spent last year.
Fingal County Council does not have a designated disability officer. It said that “with the exception of housing grants, correspondence/complaints etc regarding disability are not recorded separately and are usually dealt with by the relevant department, primarily the operations department”.
That department is not aware of any outstanding issues , bar ‘one outstanding issue’ based on a complaint received by the council’s Building Control Section regarding a wheelchair user in the Northwood Estate in Santry having difficulty as the road there is not dished. In that case the council was unable to take action because the road is not ‘taken in charge’ as it is privately owned and managed.
In the past three years, it received 211 applications to its housing section of work to be carried out under disability grants in council dwellings, at a cost of €983,000, while 763 applications in private properties were dealt with at a cost of €5.2m.
A council spokesman said: “I can find no records of complaints regarding the lack of a disability officer.
“The housing department have advised that they are establishing a Housing Disability Steering Group to develop a five-year strategy for housing of people with physical, intellectual, mental health, or sensory disability.
"In accordance with national policy the goal is to meet the identified housing needs of disabled people locally, whether they are currently living in the community and/or in a congregated setting.”
Dublin City Council has a senior access officer.
The council said a lot of work has been done to ensure full access to public buildings, but “the required further disability funding to carry out upgrades to all the remaining buildings, parks, roads etc has not been made available from the Department of Environment, Heritage, and Local Government since 2011.
"Therefore the targeted completion date of end 2015 was/is unrealistic.”
Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan recently told Cllr Dermot Lacey that, last year, it received 169 applications for housing adaptation and extension under its Scheme for Persons with Disabilities Programmes for tenants, with 79 applications approved and 165 completed in the calendar year at a cost of €977,900.
Its disability officer dealt with 38 complaints last year. This year, 397 adaptations/extensions have been approved, from showers to ceiling hoists.
South Dublin County Council has had just 35 applications to its disability liaison, access, and equality officer, with many covering access issues to public buildings.
In 2013, there were five applications made regarding housing, although none were linked directly to the issue of housing adaptation. The local authority said its officer does not have a capital budget.
In neighbouring Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, the local authority said there was no specific budget for its access officer with the cost of any works borne by the relevant departments.
The council also “does not have a specific mechanism for recording such requests made to this officer”, and so no figures were made available.
In Limerick, there is one designated disability officer for Limerick City and county, Last year, two requests were dealt with, one relating to a disabled parking space and the other to do with the height of a pavement in Murroe.
