A radical overhaul in social housing policy is underway after Simon Coveney, the Minister for Housing, revealed that 2,000 social houses had been rejected last year. 183 of these were in Donegal.
This policy change will mean that people will not be offered houses based on need and suitability, instead they will be allowed to express interest in particular dwellings.
This will have a knock on effect in that people lower down on the waiting list will have a home faster as they can express interest in properties that are less popular.
Local authorities will have to begin advertising vacant houses. Instead of council finding a house for potential tenants, it will be up to the people on the waiting list to seek out their own property and express an interest in it.
This overhaul has been put into place in hopes that it will decrease the volume of empty houses across the country.
According to The Journal, there were 159 empty council houses in Donegal last year (after €1.7 was cut from Donegal’s re-furbishment funding- the biggest national cut).
The Central Statistics Office reported that at the beginning of 2016, a whopping 28.2% of all houses in Donegal lay empty.
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