Council to use empty houses to cut housing list

Westmeath County Council is to place people on the housing waiting list into the glut of empty social and affordable housing at sites at Raithin and Kinnegad.At a Mullingar Area Commitee meeting held yesterday in county buildings the council confirmed a figure of 1169 units currently lying empty in their housing stock.The council is making the move in order to secure at least some revenue from the unsold stock which is faring poorly against reduced prices on the open housing market.The measures will also help to alleviate the growing problem of homelessness in Mullingar and wider Westmeath. TEAM (Temporary Emergency Accommodation in Mullingar) has been inundated with requests for emergency housing over the last few months.'There is a problem with homelessness and with a general shortage of housing stock,' councillor Mick Dollard said last week.'The council is currently working with a housing association called HELM and is in the process of interviewing tenants on the housing list and hope to place people in houses as soon as possible.'The situation is really very simple,' said the councillor.'When the concept of social and affordable houses started prices were very expensive and now that prices have plummeted privately built housing has become cheaper than the social housing in a lot of cases and we have been left with this glut of stock and we still have to pay the loans on it.'As everyone knows budgets have been cut and we need to maintain our cash flow. It just makes sense that we take back some revenue from this glut of social housing stock.'Councillor Dollard also said that he is seeing people who have been made homeless in his surgery every week and that the council priority must be to find accommodation for those who need it.'People can be made homeless for a variety of reasons,' he said. It could be anything from a fall out with family members, to financial or addiction problems. The first thing that people need is a roof over their heads then we need to assess their health and then their education needs. 'These are things that people need to take their rightful place in society and lead a purposeful life,' he said.