Tipperary families left waiting for answers as councillor seeks change to housing allocation system
A Nenagh councillor has called on Tipperary County Council to notify unsuccessful applicants for social housing, saying the current system leaves families waiting anxiously for news.
At the July meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District, Labour Party councillor Louise Morgan Walsh asked the council’s housing section if people could be notified if they were not successful.
Under Tipperary County Council’s Choice Based Letting (CBL) system, only applicants who are successful in securing a home are notified.
The issue has come to a head as the local authority are in the process of allocating 67 houses in Tyone, Nenagh to successful applicants.
The current situation is “not good enough” and “not fair” according to Cllr Morgan Walsh.
“The council is writing to people who have been successfully put forward to engage with Respond for the houses in Tyone, but yet, we have a lot of people out there who are in stressful situations and they’re not even getting a letter to say that they were unsuccessful,” she said.
“I think that’s a huge issue because every family is going through a lot of stress, they’re on the housing list for a reason and they’re finding out from the neighbour down the road that a friend got a letter and then they’re peppering for 48 hours hoping that they get a letter.
“They’re ringing in, and I do understand that the housing section is extremely busy, especially with the allocations, but they’re finding it extremely hard to get hold of someone to explain to them,” Cllr Morgan Walsh explained.
The Labour councillor asked that the system be changed to allow all applicants to be written to whether they’re successful or not.
“These people deserve to be written to to say ‘I’m sorry, you weren’t successful’, I just think the way they’re finding out is not good enough and it’s not fair to them,” she added.
In response, a representative from the council’s housing section said that they would look into the issue and see if they could change the system.
“When someone applies for CBL, they’re told that only successful applicants will be notified, but we’ll certainly explore if we can notify unsuccessful applicants, we’ll have to work with the developer of the system.
“We’d be optimistic that we can do it, and it is important to notify people,” the meeting was told.