Dublin councillors admit ‘trust gap’ over social housing managed by Approved Housing Bodies
Dublin councillors have admitted a trust gap in social housing, revealing they feel less comfortable with Approved Housing Body-managed tenancies than those overseen directly by Dublin City Council.
This was revealed at a meeting between Tuath Housing executives and the North Central Area committee on Monday, where directors from the housing agency delivered a presentation outlining how they manage their properties. Described as a “first step” to bridge the communication gap between councillors and Approved Housing Bodies (AHB), in recent years, there has been a significant increase in associations like Tuath developing, managing, and maintaining social housing. Cluid Housing are also due to present at an upcoming meeting.
While Dublin Live has previously highlighted tenants' issues with anti-social behaviour, mould, and subpar security at complexes such as De Verdon Place , Burnell Place , and Bunratty Walk , Tuath stressed that those dissatisfied with their housing are in the minority. With overall resident satisfaction standing at 87%, Tuath claims that 90% of tenants under their management say they are satisfied with the homes they are providing.
As an AHB whose housing stock in North Central areas like Belmayne, Clongriffin, Donaghmede and Coolock has grown substantially in recent years, Tuath admitted there has been issues relating to anti-social behaviour, non-residents gaining access to buildings, and out of order elevators. However, Chief Operating Officer Bronagh D’Arcy told councillors “we are learning all the time” and said that they are looking to retrofitting existing properties and putting measures in place to ensure new builds don’t have the same problems as before.
Councillors welcomed Tuath’s engagement and said it’s important to further open the lines of communication between AHB’s and representatives, as there is often confusion about who to contact on behalf of their constituents. Fianna Fail Cllr Deirdre Heney said it was great to have Tuath present at this point as “I feel much more comfortable dealing with city council” and that this disconnect must be addressed.
She said it’s often difficult to feel comfortable advising council tenants to accept an AHB managed property and not think “if it goes wrong I’m in big trouble.” She explained that when something goes wrong in homes directly managed by the council “I know who I can ring” but in the current situation “you don’t have that same trust.”
“When we recommend someone is going to be housed by Tuath, that’s the end of it - it’s up to Tuath after that,” she said. Cllr Heney said she understands that it takes time to build the kind of long-standing relationship that councillors are used to within the council’s housing department and that “the jury is out” on AHBs.
Ms D’Arcy agreed that better cross communication is needed and said that councillors will be provided with the contact details of not just housing managers but also the different directors. “Our phones are on 24/7 and have no problem with you contacting us directors directly,” she said.
She explained that Tuath is not a “nine to five organisation” and they are working to establish after hours contact points for tenants and that they have on-call contractors available to carry out repair works after hours and on weekends. The presentation outlined a total of 3,391 resident contact requests over the past 12 months.
For routine requests, Tuath’s Director of Housing Fiachra McKernan stated that they were carried out within 12 days, for urgent requests the wait time was four days, and emergency requests were carried out the same day. There were 1,752 routine, 1,063 urgent, and 567 emergency requests.
Social Democrats Cllr Jesslyn Henry highlighted major issues at De Verdon Place at the previous North Central Area meeting and commended Tuath on their strong engagement since. She said their Anti-Social Behaviour team have been very supportive in accommodating conversations with councillors and tenants and it feels like “residents are actually having their voices heard.”
“I’m impressed by how quickly the maintenance is being done, there has been a lot of maintenance issues particularly in Burnell Place and that seems to be getting sorted,” she said. With regular clinics being held where tenants can bring their concerns directly to Tuath, Cllr Henry said “you are actually taking to steps” to try and sort out long-standing problems.
Director of Property Services Nick Sheward stated that tenants in the North Central Area have had an average of 2.7 repairs per property, which is higher than the overall average of 2 per property. He said this represents around 10% of their repair demand happening across 7% of their housing stock.
He explained that repairs works have highlighted things that should be done differently in future and cited a need to consider alternative elevators, different door entrances, CCTV, and more robust magnetic locks.
Sinn Fein Cllr Mícheal Mac Donncha commended Tuath for their strong engagement, but suggested that there should be a designated liaison person who could act as their point of contact. While he said he would prefer for social housing to be managed directly by the council, government policy has favoured AHBs.
“That’s the reality we have to deal with. Even though homes are provided through taxpayers money and the tenants come from the council list. That’s not to decry Tuath, who are doing a good job,” he said.
Cllr Mac Donncha said with a high concentration of apartment blocks in their constituency that many buildings likely suffer from “legacy defects” due to developments built during the Celtic Tiger when “standards were let drop.”
One aspect of the presentation that saw some push back from councillors was the re-naming of tenants to ‘customers.’ Cllr John Lyons said this recontextualizing of terminology signals the increasing privatisation of social housing with Social Democrats Cllr Paddy Monahan describing it as “Thatcherite” and stated “I wouldn’t be too fond of it.”
However, Cllr Monahan stated that he attended a meeting between Tuath and tenants and that he was impressed by their level of communication. He said they provided a document titled ‘Who Fixes What’ that was very helpful in making sense of whether an issue is the responsibility of Tuath Housing, Dublin City Council , or a private owner. Ms D’Arcy said that while there are often different bodies that need to be contacted for maintenance or repair issues, if it’s the direct responsibility of Tuath they have the ability to “take action straight away.”
Tuath Housing were the first Approved Housing Body to be invited to present for the North Central Area. Cluid Housing are also due to present at an upcoming meeting.
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme