COUNCIL management has been urged to set a target of refurbishing all existing void properties throughout the city within the next 12 months.
Without being ambitious and setting clear targets and objectives the ongoing problem of voids would become a permanent challenge. That’s according to Labour councillor Joe Leddin who also believes that the local authority have not been proactive enough in forcing absentee homeowners, who have simply abandoned properties, to either sell or upgrade them.
Cllr Leddin, who is a member of the Social Policy and Housing Strategic Policy Committee (SPC), has now called on management in City Hall to set a target of refurbishing all existing void properties throughout Limerick City within the next 12 months.
“There are currently 2,725 people waiting to be housed by the Council and while construction of new homes is underway in several parts of the city we still have more than 100 boarded up properties lying idle while awaiting repair,” he told the Limerick Post.
“Derelict houses regardless of whether they are private or council owned properties present the greatest eyesore within neighbourhoods causing all sorts of additional challenges including anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping. Government funding is available under the Social Housing 2020 strategy specifically for the redevelopment of void properties and while great progress has been made in recent years the number of current boarded up houses is unacceptably high.”
The City West representative feels it is unfair that people must live beside empty derelict houses with the fear of potential fires or health issues arising from rodents and infestation.
“The Council have not been proactive enough in forcing those absentee home owners who have simply abandoned properties to either sell or upgrade them. Recent legislation now allows Councils to impose annual levies on such houses however I believe an all-out offensive using the powers of Compulsory Purchase Orders must be initiated.
We cannot maintain safe stable communities and create a sense of civic pride and community while local residents and neighbours deal with the daily challenges brought about by void homes,” Cllr Leddin concluded.
According to a spokesman for the Department of Housing, alongside a programme of constructing new social homes, the Limerick local authorities have been told that funding is available to refurbish vacant social homes and to acquire second-hand homes.
“All Local Authorities, including Limerick City and County Council, have been told that funding is available in 2018 to support their programmes to deliver social housing as soon as possible,” he said.
“The Voids Programme has seen over 9,200 vacant social houses returned to productive use nationally since it began in 2014. The key objective of this programme was to assist in addressing the backlog of vacant/boarded-up social housing that had built up pre-2014 and the feedback from across the local authorities is that that the number of vacant social housing homes countrywide has substantially reduced.
“A pipeline of new Social Housing projects is also being advanced in Limerick. There are currently 48 capital schemes approved in the Limerick local authority area, at various stages of advancement with the majority due to deliver new units in 2020 & 2021. Once completed, 471 new social homes units will be delivered in Limerick City and County at a cost of €91 million.”
