Cork council plans to make almost 1,000 houses available
Cork County Council aims to provide a record 922 houses this year for those on the waiting list, considerably more than it made available in the previous two years.
Maurice Manning, the council's director of housing, said the number of houses which will be provided to people this year were being built by the local authority itself, acquired through acquisitions from private owners, or 'turnkey' projects, where newly built homes are purchased from developers.
He told a meeting of Cork County Council's Northern Division that the local authority is increasing the number of homes it intends to provide this year - up from 616 in 2019 and 536 in 2018.
Mr Manning revealed that the council is also looking at its remaining landbanks to see if they are suitable to provide discounted sites for those who want to build their own homes on them.
"This will put a huge dent in the housing list," Cllr William O'Leary said.
Cllr Gerard Murphy pointed out that Cork County Council is among the best of the country's local authorities when it comes to providing homes.
Mr Manning told councillors that his department was also looking at building affordable homes, which would be cheaper than the current market value and be provided to people who were under certain income thresholds.
However, he pointed out that the council intended to provide them only in areas where there was a housing shortage and extremely high rents, such as in Midleton, Carrigaline and Kinsale.
Meanwhile, some councillors expressed concern about the take-up by people on the waiting list of an online system which advertised council houses for re-letting.
Cllr John Paul O'Shea said he was surprised how many applicants haven't logged onto Choice-Based Letting (CBL) system.
"It is disappointing that nearly 2,000 people are not on it," he said.
Cllr Kay Dawson said she had come across people who are "challenged by computers" and won't go online.
"I would worry about the more vulnerable who haven't got the skillset to go online," she said.
Mr Manning said if she was aware of people who had difficulties with operating the system she should “send them in our direction, we're available to assist them".
"In the next number of months we will be carrying out a housing needs assessment for 2020. We have contacted people who are not engaging (online) and have offered assistance to them," Mr Manning added.
