Plans to build 3,000 social houses by 2021 not possible
By Aura McMenamin
Plans to build 3,000 social housing units in the county by 2021 are not possible, according to South Dublin County Council, reports Aura McMenamin.
Speaking at this month’s council meeting, Director of Housing, Social and Community Development Billy Coman said: “We are continuing to do the best we possibly can. We have to be honest and say it’s not possible to meet these targets.”
These targets were set out by the Department of Housing this year, which Mr Coman said they planned on discussing at the Housing Summit on Monday, January 22 and February’s Housing Strategic Policy Committee.
A spokesperson for the council told The Echo this week: “On the current pipeline we have, it will be challenging but the council will be doing everything we can to meet the targets.”
Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy announced on Monday a number of actions that local authorities must take to accelerate social housing.
“Each Local Authority Chief Executive is now required to furnish a report by mid-February, confirming and setting out how their Local Authority will deliver on its social housing targets over the coming years,” he said in a statement.
“The targets and details of the delivery programme of each Local Authority will then be published on an ongoing basis.”
According to the council figures given to The Echo, There were 137 units provided in the county last year, with 588 due to be delivered in 2018.
There are currently nine housing projects under development, with one more due to go on site this year.
The integrated housing development at Kilcarbery is also due to begin construction in 2019, which will provide 109 social housing units.
Mr Coman said at this month’s meeting that the council “needs more [family] hubs” in order to move away from the self-accommodation model for homelessness, whereby families source their own hotels and B&Bs.
In December, the council provided 22 homeless families with hotel accommodation, while 37 families availed of the HAP scheme.
The council told The Echo: “Some of these were families accepted [HAP] in previous months and/or were availing of HAP rather than emergency accommodation.”
