Council facing growing housing crisis

Meath faces a growing crisis in the provision of public housing because of the recession and the absence of home-building, it emerged this week. Up to 3,200 applicants are now waiting for local authority housing in the county, a figure that is up sharply because of the recession. A number of Meath councillors have said they are being inundated with appeals from people for accommodation from the county council and demanded that a "crisis meeting" on the matter be held before the council's scheduled summer break in August. However, Fine Gael whip on the council, Cllr John Farrelly, told the June monthly meeting of the council on Monday it would be better to first get an update on the housing situation from council officials and then "look at the situation in September". Cllr Nick Killian said the county was facing a housing crisis with people desperately seeking accommodation. He wanted to know how the council could bring some initiative to bear on the situation. However, he said the council should not wait around but hold a special meeting before the summer break "so that we know where Meath County Council is going on its housing policy". He said the banks were "putting people out of their homes" and this pressure was manifesting itself in the council with increased applications for accommodation. While council officials were "working hard trying to help people", he said their hands were tied because of the lack of housing available to them for allocation. Cllr Farrelly said councillors knew that there had been a problem in the housing area for the past 24 months. The number of people looking for housing had "risen dramatically" over the last three to four years and the number of new housing starts had fallen to zero, he said. Cllr Jimmy Fegan said that while he agreed with the holding of a special meeting to discuss housing, what was needed was a broad national review of housing policy. The numbers joining the housing applications list was "growing by the day". The banks were not lending money for housing, he said, and while builders were anxious to dispose of property, this was not being made easy for them. There was a need for forward thinking on the housing policy issue and they could not wait indefinitely for it. Cllr Eugene Cassidy raised the issue of housing accommodation in rural areas. It was the case that people could not be accommodated in their own rural areas and were being forced to go to larger towns for housing. Cllr Joe Reilly said the country had come through "a boom and a bust" and, at the end of it, there was a longer housing list than ever. One of the major problems was that councils had been priced out of the market for land. He said €22 million had been paid for 28 acres in Navan, a "ridiculous amount of money", he claimed. Cllr Noel Leonard agreed the county faced a housing crisis. He said he had people coming to him "who never thought they would be in a position of looking for social housing". Cllr Catherine Yore asked what was the legal position of lands that were under the control of Nama and fell under the current Meath County Development Plan. Could these lands be developed for housing or recreational purposes? she asked. "At the moment, these lands have been zoned for development and recreational use but they are not being developed. Also, individuals are receiving payments to maintain that land. What is the legal position of these lands and apartments that are still in the ownership of developers but are now in Nama?" Cllr Brian Fitzgerald said the council would have to look at ways it could encourage the provision of houses. One of the inhibiting factors in the provision of revenue for house-building was the fact that there was very little money coming into the council by way of planning applications. A council official said that Minister for Housing Willie Pensore had initiated a review of housing policy and the results of this were due to be revealed this week. This would give the councils a true picture of the housing situation, he said.