Life After Politics: Housing continues to be at the fore for Louise Heavin

The housing crisis in Ireland was one of the main motivating factors in Louise Heavin's decision to get involved in local politics, and housing continues to play a pivotal role in her life as last week she began a new job as Head of Development with housing association HAIL - the Housing Association for Integrated Living.

HAIL was established 40 years ago to help people with long-term mental ill-health who needed support to live independently.

Louise explained that her new role will see her help the housing association grow its development pipeline in terms of housing.

"About 40% of the housing in any development that we bring on board will be specifically for people with mental health difficulties," explained Louise.

"The organisation has a strong team of people that support those people with tenancy sustainment and support those people on an ongoing basis to live independently. We have a high tenancy sustainment rate and happy people living in our homes, so it's about growing that because there is a need in every community for homes for people who need mental health supports."

Louise added that the housing association is actively seeking developers to partner with and works with local authorities to identify the right schemes in the right areas.

Describing how the role allows her to contribute to addressing the housing crisis, she said: "HAIL is a small organisation, we're not going to solve it all, but we are going to solve a really important part of it or be part of the solution. Being part of a housing body and being in a senior role in a housing body does mean I get input into stakeholder forums.

"I'm at the housing forums in local authorities, I'm involved in housing policy to a certain level. For me, I find the work really, really interesting."

And while housing was one of the issues that first drew Louise into politics, it was also a contributing factor in her decision to move away from the Green Party and run as an Independent. She served for five years as a Green Party councillor on the Athlone-Moate Municipal District of Westmeath County Council before running as an Independent candidate in last year's Dáil elections.

"Housing and improving housing in Ireland has always been my driver, and that got lost, towards the end when I was in the Green Party because the party wasn't considering that one of its main focuses. When I got involved in it, it was one of its main focuses and they were talking about cost rental, and to be fair a lot of good policy came in with the last government with the likes of cost rental but that wasn't getting across in the media that the Green Party was driving that.”

She said she felt pigeon-holed in the Green Party, particularly when some politicians were using the Green Party as a scapegoat when policies had to be brought in and she said it was "like a target on my back", which bugged her.

Looking back on her five years in politics, Louise admits that for her it was a case of learning on the job. As an architect, she has a lot of experience in housing and planning and so she really enjoyed the process of creating the development plan, and equally the Climate Action Plan.

"One of the biggest highlights and one of the most enjoyable parts of my job was being Chair of the Westmeath Heritage Forum.

"We drew up the new heritage plan and I really enjoyed that aspect of it because you do feel like you're having an impact into something that is lasting and will influence decisions being made in planning, or in terms of heritage, and where funding might go and how we might get funding and introduce new heritage programmes. That was really, really enjoyable," she said.

Her year as mayor was also a highlight for her, although she said in ways it was also tough.

"Certainly, the year I was mayor was very intense and, looking back, I was doing far too much that year. It was a very tough year. Although it was an enjoyable year being mayor, it was a tough year for me," said Louise.

In a bid to balance family life with the work of a councillor she said that during her time as mayor she brought her children (now aged 6 and 5) along to some of her public engagements that she thought they would enjoy.

Louise admitted that it is tricky to balance family and political life and said: "I was quite strict about getting back for bedtime with them when I was a councillor. I did decline some evening meetings because you'd burn out if you're working all day, doing council work, and then trying to get to stuff in the evenings. I didn't want to be like that for my family."

She said although her husband was there to look after their kids, she missed not being there and had attempted to have council meetings moved to earlier in the day to fall in line with the regular working day.

"I personally think we should have respect for parents and enable them to go home to see their families more than what the council work has done, or was doing for me," she said.

Louise said that trying to help people one-to-one could sometimes be tough because quite often she simply felt like a messenger.

"Even though I was a councillor making a representation on behalf of somebody, the news was always going to be the same. I can't change a decision based on the same evidence that somebody has looked at previously.

"Quite often I was delivering bad news to people, to say you are on a housing waiting list, you have been on there for a while, but you might need to be on there for another while before something will be made available," she said.

Louise added that she had also helped several women who needed to be signposted to domestic violence services, and said that women in these situations were able to talk to her more freely because she was a woman.

"I'm not saying that the men mightn't have done the same thing, but I did feel that I was in a position to help and people felt a bit more open to giving me a call because I was a woman. And that is a loss now, unfortunately, because there aren't women there," she said.

"It isn't really the role of a councillor, but when someone rings you up, your number is there, you help them in whatever way you can, particularly in those circumstances."

As well as being the only woman on the Athlone-Moate Municipal District during her time as a councillor, Louise was also the only member of a minority party and a first-time councillor.

"I had all these things that, in a way, made me feel foreign in the council chamber, to be honest. It made me feel different. I know Jamie Moran was there briefly, but I felt, because I was younger than most of them I was on a different wavelength on certain issues, not on everything, but on certain issues I was. I see things from a different perspective, a completely different point of view," she said.

"I live in town, I walk the kids on a pavement and push buggies on a pavement, so all those things give me a completely different point of view than some of the other councillors.

"So that was difficult and challenging. I fought my corner as hard as I could and I bit my tongue when I knew that saying something wouldn't make any difference at all," she said of her time in the council chamber.

Louise said that at the start of her term as a councillor, she felt there was collaboration but by the end this was not the case.

"Whether that was because I was a woman, or whether it was because I was young and from a different perspective, or whether it was just because I was the competition, I don't know, but there was very little collaboration towards the end.

"I will say there was a lack of respect towards my views. Particularly there was a discussion around turf and the use of turf, and I had a perspective from living in the town and having two family members with asthma and saying that air pollution in the town during winter is bad and needs to be addressed. People just didn't see it, didn't get it, and used it a political point scoring instead of actually understanding the issues I was trying to talk to them about," she said.

Louise said that sometimes she felt treated fairly, but at other times she didn't.

"There was a particular incident where myself and my colleague Cllr(Hazel) Smyth were getting less speaking time than other people in the council chamber. I did call the chair out on it at the time, and I was told off, for want of a better word, and at the end of the day the meetings administrator said it was her fault because she was keeping time for the chair.

“Although it was unfair, it was a mistake rather than deliberate. Being the minority like that in a chamber when something like that happens you feel more attacked, even though it might not have been deliberate.

“There was a lot of talking over what we were saying, heckling things that would happen, particularly at the county council meeting. They were frustrating and annoying, they didn't happen for everybody, they did happen for me and Hazel, and that can feel like you're being treated unfairly then, especially when it's not being called out and not being stopped there and then.

"Every councillor probably feels that at some point, depending on what the issue is or whatever. As people would say to me, it's the nature of politics," she said.