Council aims for 2,000 homes

Tipperary Co Council's ever-ambitious housing programme continues to set new goals and is now on course to deliver over 2,000 units by 2026.

This achievement would be 200 units more than the council's stated projection in the middle of last year.

The objective was set out in a detailed presentation delivered to councillors at a special meeting of the council convened last week. It envisaged the delivery of 2,010 housing units by the end of a 2022-2026 housing programme.

The majority of these will be new builds, with a total of 1,125 units to be provided between the local authority and approved housing bodies. There is also to be 650 voids, or vacant housing units brought back into the use; the council is presently making between 120 and 140 void units available for living in every year.

A further 155 units are to be delivered through the Buy & Renew and Repair & Lease schemes. And the council is also buying houses with a target of 80 acquisitions over the course of the programme; more than half of this target has already been reached.

In a presentation to the council last week, Senior Engineer Jonathan Cooney spoke of the rapid advances the Housing section has made, not just in reaching but in exceeding its targets. Tipperary surpassed expectations under the Government's previous Rebuilding Ireland housing programme and would do so again under Housing for All, Mr Cooney said. The local authority is only 42 units short of the 1,125 build figure, with most of the anticipated units at various planning or construction stages, or already completed.

EXCEEDING NEED

Mr Cooney outlined how this response to the housing situation would deliver more than enough units, given that the projected need by the end of 2026 is 1,617 applicants. “We’re 400 units above where we feel we need to be in 2026,” he told the meeting.

Mr Cooney further detailed the many results arising from the council's requests from the Department of Housing, among them the provision of five extra staff.

Among the provisions the council still needs to see is the appointment of a second officer for vacant housing in Tipperary, given the size of the county and the level of work required to address dereliction and vacancy.

In her presentation, Housing Officer Cora Morrissey told the meeting that the council had been informed of a total of 224 notices to quit (NTQs) among HAP (Housing Assistance Payment) and RAS (Rental Accommodation Scheme) properties to date. Forty-five of these were in Nenagh Municipal District and 47 were in the Thurles district.

Of the total number, the council has purchased 47; a further four were under offer while 31 were being considered. The council had decided not to purchase the remainder for a number of reasons, such as the tenant being under/over-accommodated; value for money; landlord not selling, or the property being in unsuitable condition.

This left a total of 102 HAP properties where NTQs were served and the council had decided against buying the property. Of these, 25 tenants had already found alternative accommodation; nine NTQs were revoked; nine notices expired, and 13 tenants exited the scheme voluntarily.

EMERGENCY ACCOMMODATION

Ms Morrissey explained that this left a total of 46 'live' notices to quit in repsect of HAP properties in County Tipperary. In the event that any of these tenants became homeless, the council had access to 130 emergency beds around the county. These included 74 beds in private B&Bs located between Roscrea, Clonmel, Cashel and Cahir. A further 30 beds were available in 'transitional units' in Nenagh, Thurles and Clonmel, including Prospect House (managed by Novas) and Ascend in Nenagh. Additional units were either already available or coming on stream this year throughout the county under the 'Own Front Door' scheme, whereby B&B emergency accommodation for ongoing repeat users is replaced by short-term managed emergency accommodation. Five bed spaces are to be in place in Nenagh under this scheme in July of this year.

Mr Morrissey's presentation detailed the raft of responses the council's Housing team has put in place to deal with the challenges arising from increased numbers of NTQs. As well as operating with additional staffing resources, the section has strengthened procedures for dealing with NTQ clients since last June. A senior team has been in place since June to co-ordinate purchase of NTQ properties.