"It's a broken system": Up to 80% of calls to Athlone councillors relate to housing

Housing is the number one issue for local representatives, a number of Athlone-area councillors have said this week.

Councillors have reported that between 60% and 80% of the calls they receive are from people who are having difficulty accessing housing, whether that's social housing, affordable housing, or rental properties.

One councillor said this week that, such is the magnitude of the problem, he feels helpless as a public representative.

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke (FF) said around 80% of the calls he receives are related to housing issues. "Calls, emails, texts, messages, it's all housing, housing, housing," he said.

"It's very frustrating. I feel helpless as a public representative. I can't help but feel it's a broken system."

Cllr O'Rourke said there is a lack of housing and that local authorities don't seem to be agile enough in their response, adding that perhaps they were overburdened with paperwork.

One project he highlighted as taking particularly long to deliver is the development of more than 20 council homes at the Greally Park development in Arcadia, contracts for which were signed in June 2023.

Two years later, Cllr O'Rourke said "we're still waiting on" the new homes at Greally Park, and it seemed to be the case that things were not lined up between the different stakeholders and utilities.

“There is all this talk about a housing czar, but someone has to get the various utilities and stakeholders in line,” he said. “Greally Park is a perfect example of that.”

“Even if you are building an extension, everything has to happen at a certain time.”

Cllr O'Rourke added: “In some of these cases, people were earmarked for these (homes) and given a tentative deadline. What happens in their tenancies now, when it's not finished? There is a knock-on effect to these delays.

"(The new homes) have been allocated, and people want to get into them, but they're in limbo. Where there is a delay, it is impacting on the housing food chain in that people are wanting to move, and there might be a smaller family coming behind them, and then they're left waiting. It has become such a protracted and cumbersome process."

Cllr O'Rourke raised the issue at this month's meeting of the Athlone Moate Municipal District and was informed it would likely be later this year - around October - before the first residents move to the Greally Park development.

"It's very frustrating. I feel helpless as a public representative," he added. “I can't see a horizon, I can't see where we are going.

"Whether it's a housing czar, or a housing champion, someone just has to pull this whole thing together and make this happen," he said.

Fine Gael councillor John Dolan said housing is also a major issue for people contacting him, and he said that, while generally housing tends to be less of an issue for rural councillors compared to their urban counterparts, about 60% of the people who contact him do so because of a housing-related issue.

"Ten years ago, it was maybe 30% housing, and then planning and roads were the other issues, but it's gone from 30% to 60%," he said.

"More working people are having trouble getting houses, whereas before it might have been someone who couldn't work," said Cllr Dolan. "There is a shortage of supply."

He added that people were also running into difficulty where they are trying to rent but a landlord would not accept HAP (Housing Assistance Payment).

"Legally, they are supposed to take HAP, but some won't," said Cllr Dolan. "The solution is more houses, but they are not being built."

He said that, over the last year, a number of people he had been helping got sorted with housing and, while it's great to see people being dealt with, there is a consistent number on the list, such is the demand at present.

He added that there is no shortage of planning permissions granted for housing in the Athlone area, but you then have to get people to build them and developers have to be able to access finance and ensure that building them is financially viable.

Cllr Dolan added that prices have increased significantly in the past five years.

"It is well in excess of €400,000 for an ordinary house. Before you were looking at between €200,000 to €250,000, but now you're looking at €400,000 for a mortgage. That's really in five years. There's no easy solution to housing. If there was, it would be sorted," he said.

"Working people wouldn't normally have looked for help," he said, adding that this puts an added pressure on the system.

"There's a different mix and that's probably part of the problem. You would want two fair incomes now to afford a mortgage."

Independent Ireland's Cllr Paul Hogan agreed that housing is the number one issue for people and estimates that at least 75% of people contacting him need assistance with housing issues. "

It used to be just an urban problem, but not anymore," he said, adding that the supply isn't there to meet the demand.

"I'm all the time raising the bigger housing schemes, because that would take some of the pressure off," he added.

Cllr Hogan said more of the calls he receives now are in relation to housing allocation specifically.

"It used to be a lot of calls on maintenance and grant allocations, but now it's a lot of allocations (of housing) because people are on a list for a year and a day," he said.

"It's a massive issue," he said of housing. "Homelessness is also a big issue, those who are officially homeless and unofficially. There are lots of unofficial homeless, who are living in overcrowded accommodation."

"The resources just aren't there. It's not like there are 50 houses just there waiting," he said.

"There are houses coming on stream, but we're also catering for a backlog," concluded Cllr Hogan.