FiXiT app aims to speed up repairs for Dublin social housing tenants
The development of a mobile app could help streamline the delivery of housing maintenance across Dublin City Council managed homes.
Under the council’s Digital Transformation Strategy , the integration of the FiXiT app aims to deliver “more efficient and effective management” of maintenance and repair requests, a council communication has confirmed. Coming in tandem with an upgrade of the council’s Housing IT system, the full integration of the app should facilitate better quality information, data, and stats for housing maintenance teams.
The delivery of much needed maintenance across Dublin City Council homes has been a hot topic in recent months, as social housing tenants face an incoming increase in their rent from April 6 . The rent hike was proposed to address the more than €50 million shortfall in the council’s housing maintenance budget.
One major point of concern regarding housing maintenance is a lack of clarity on when exactly repair issues reported by tenants will be completed. This inability to track jobs in real time led to calls from Sinn Fein Councillor Kourtney Kenny for an online portal where tenants can track progress and get an estimated timeline for delivery.
Not only would this portal give residents peace of mind regarding their impending repairs, but Cllr Kenny said it could ensure that the money earned from increased rents is actually going directly toward the maintenance of properties that need it most.
“The inner-city complexes are among the oldest housing stock in the city and therefore in the greatest need of comprehensive maintenance, deep retrofitting and upgrading works to bring them up to modern living standards. Our tenants and councillors require clarity and assurance that the financial burden placed on tenants will directly result in tangible improvements to living conditions,” Cllr Kenny outlined in a motion set to go before the full council at an upcoming meeting.
However, Phase 1 of the Housing IT system upgrade does not include a tenant portal. Tenants will have to wait until Phase 2 of the project gets underway which includes the introduction of a ‘Housing Online’ module. This is “a tenant facing facility to log maintenance requests online as well as access to other housing functions.”
The implementation of Phase 1 is currently underway, with Phase 2 anticipated to progress later this year. “In the meantime, implementation of FiXit and Phase 1 of the IT System upgrade will put front line teams in a better position to provide more accurate and timely information in response to tenants and public representative queries on maintenance requests,” a Senior Executive explained.
The overall Digital Transformation Strategy aims to make Dublin City a truly digital city by 2030, as the council embraces future ready technologies to improve quality of life and address city challenges. The strategy focuses on four key goals:
The introduction of the FiXiT app falls until Goal 4, which endeavours to ensure council staff can work in a more mobile and agile manner. This includes embracing advances in technology and incorporating it into their housing maintenance plans.
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