Tipperary woman ‘terrified’ of neighbour sparks questions over council housing allocation
A Tipperary woman allocated a social home by the local authority has been left “terrified” of her neighbour, prompting questions about how housing decisions are made.
At the March meeting of the Thurles Municipal District, Fianna Fáil councillor Kay Cahill Skehan raised the issue, saying that she has been working with a woman who is living in fear in her current home.
"I had a problem recently where a girl in her mid-30s with two small children was placed in a house, and she’s been placed beside someone who is really very difficult to live beside,” Cllr Cahill Skehan said.
"She is absolutely terrified of him. I feel that the council perhaps knew he would be next door to her because there was timber fences in the back garden, but a wall was built between her and this neighbour before she moved in, while the others still have timber fences.
"She’s terrified of him, and he knows she’s terrified of him, and I just wonder what consideration is put into putting somebody into a house. I know that somebody has to go into the house, but I feel a girl of her age, and so timid as she is, with two small children, it wasn’t the right house to place her in,” Cllr Cahill Skehan said.
The Fianna Fáil councillor added that while the house had to be given to someone, maybe it would have been more suitable for a couple to be allocated to this particular home.
"Possibly a house where there was a couple – a man maybe – that would be able for him and able to speak up to him. She is just absolutely terrified and he’s just running riot around her,” she added.
In response, a representative from the council’s housing section said it was possible that the lady applied for the house herself through the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system, but said they would talk to Cllr Cahill Skehan in more detail after the meeting.
CBL allows people on the council’s housing list to bid on properties that are available to rent.
"A lot of the allocations now are done by Choice Based Letting, so she would probably have applied for that house herself,” Cllr Cahill Skehan was told.
"Obviously we can’t discuss specific cases here, but if you give me a call later on and I will see if I can send her a tenant liaison officer to speak to her,” the housing representative said.