Council housing boost as funding to double by 2011

Athlone Town Council"s Capital Housing Allocation fro 2009-2011 could double on the previous three years, it has emerged this week as the council executive informed councillors on Monday evening that indicative figures from the Department suggest that the council will receive €19.5m for the period 2009-2011. While the council has to meet with Department officials this week on the matter, if the actual allocation is in line with the indicative figures, this would be double the allocation received in the last three years. The allocation for this year was €3.5m, last year"s was €3m and in 2006 it was €2.5m, which totalled €9m over the three year period. Director of Services Barry Kehoe told the councillors that the indicative figures were based on the council"s housing needs as of March 31 of this year, following a housing needs assessment. 'There is no guarantee we will receive those allocations, but that"s indicative at this time,' he said. Cllr Kieran Molloy asked how many houses this would allow the council to build between now and 2011, and was told depending on prices it could allow the council to acquire between 100 and 120 houses in that timeframe. Cllr Molloy expressed disappointment that the council would only be able to rehouse 120 applicants over the next three years when there are currently 622 people on the housing list. Mr Kehoe said: 'It"s an excellent allocation. It"s over €6m per year, we had €3m other years.' Town Clerk John Walsh said there were other ways to house people and said it was excellent allocation and he hoped the council received it. Cllr Mark Cooney said while the Director was positive, it seemed like a small amount to him and asked how much the council sought from the Department. Mr Kehoe said the council hadn"t applied for a particular figure, but had submitted its assessment of need. Cllr Cooney then asked what the costing on the assessment of need was and Mr Kehoe said there hadn"t been a costing. Cllr Kevin "Boxer" Moran said in today"s climate it probably was a positive allocation, but said perhaps they could buy new homes cheaper from developers rather than building homes. Mayor Egbert Moran agreed with his Fianna F& aacute;il colleague saying: 'If we can do a deal with the builders we should.' Cllr Mick O"Connell pointed out that this would mean just 40 houses per year and wouldn"t take much off the list. Mr Kehoe said it didn"t work like that and said there was a system in place to determine who got houses, with people with the highest needed being housed first. Cllr O"Connell asked what the average waiting time was, to which Mr Kehoe replied there was no such thing as an average person on the list and there were different waiting times depending on circumstances. Cllr Ray Lennon said he thought the council should get value for money and should buy new homes where possible as there wouldn"t be the same need for repairs as there would be with older houses. The Director of Services told the councillors he had simply wanted to inform them of the indicative figures and would come back to them at the November meeting with a full action plan following the meeting with the Department.