Social housing - Government must tackle waiting lists

Despite their best efforts, co-op housing associations and voluntary and non-profit organisations just simply cannot keep up with the pace of demand for social housing.

Without their endeavours to make inroads into the housing lists, the situation would be infinitely worse than it is. As it is, their achievement of 16,500 units at present, is woefully inadequate to cope with the reported 48,413 households looking for housing.

It is the function of local authorities to house those people on its waiting lists, but those lists are growing out of all proportion.

Consequently, nobody would disagree with the latest appraisal by CORI Justice Commission that Ireland urgently needs a comprehensive, integrated national housing policy.

It quotes the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) to the effect that the country needs to achieve a target of 200,000 social housing units to be reached by 2012. It may appear to be an unreasonable target, but it would only involve an extra 73,000 units more than the present supply over the course of eight years.

It should be attainable in one of the wealthiest countries in Europe if the political will to do so existed at government level to provide the resources to do so.