Wicklow housing list

ad1234

Hi I was wondering if anyone has any idea of the average wait to be housed by wicklow co co? Or if anyone has any experiences with this area it would be welcome.

We are on a 3 bed list four years now, chosen areas greystones and delgany, kilcoole and enniskerry. We were thinking of changing to newtownmountkennedy instead of enniskerry as there seems to be more building there though.

The council just says to keep our info updated and can not give us an average wait time so I was wondering about people's experiences. They also cant say where we are on the list but they have us on some list (not sure what) and only look into that when a property comes up.

TIA

fussyonion

They can't tell you your position on the List...I don't know why. And they can't tell you how long you're going to be waiting because they simply don't know when you'll be housed.

You have to wait for a three-bed to become available or for someone to die. You're in for a longer wait than four years.

Oh and don't expect calls from them updating your position; they never do that. But you should call them now and again and ask if there's any movement; keep your case fresh in their mind.

duckcfc

You could be waiting well over a decade. I know a single parent who's been on it 13 years

ad1234

fussyonion wrote: »

They can't tell you your position on the List...I don't know why. And they can't tell you how long you're going to be waiting because they simply don't know when you'll be housed.

You have to wait for a three-bed to become available or for someone to die. You're in for a longer wait than four years.

Oh and don't expect calls from them updating your position; they never do that. But you should call them now and again and ask if there's any movement; keep your case fresh in their mind.

Thanks I'll keep things fresh so. Would love to know their reasons for not being able to give a position also, seems very odd but they assured us were on the housing list. Thanks for your reply. Its good to know it is a long wait (in a weird way) and not just us as I had dodgy thoughts in my mind.

Thanks again

ad1234

duckcfc wrote: »

You could be waiting well over a decade. I know a single parent who's been on it 13 years

Thats crazy!! Is she on a 3 bed list also?

fussyonion

I do know a woman who has three children. She went on the housing list in 1999 and was housed last month. Her eldest child is now 18.

ad1234

fussyonion wrote: »

I do know a woman who has three children. She went on the housing list in 1999 and was housed last month. Her eldest child is now 18.

Wow thanks for the reply x

Gatling

The current average wait is usually 8-12 years depending on various situations .
We're currently on South Dublin ' s list 7 years when I updated our paperwork earlier earlier in the year ,
I stupidly asked how long more do you think we'll be waiting on the list the reply was a chuckle followed by not anytime soon

ad1234

Gatling wrote: »

I stupidly asked how long more do you think we'll be waiting on the list the reply was a chuckle followed by not anytime soon

Yeah that is the same reaction we're getting. I get the feeling the man we are dealing with lost the last shred of love for his job a long time ago :-)

fussyonion

I was on the list 10 years. I called them regularly to ask where we were and we were told we were basically waiting for someone to die.
Sadly, but fortunately for us, someone did die and we were housed. (Don't mean for that to sound heartless)

You really (and I can't stress this enough) to keep in regular contact with them.

Gatling

ad1234 wrote: »

Yeah that is the same reaction we're getting. I get the feeling the man we are dealing with lost the last shred of love for his job a long time ago :-)

I'd say that's widespread throughout the various local authorities ,

When you applied did you tick the box asking would you accept other housing ie cluid.nabco and so on .
Might be worth looking into the private associations , who seems to be taking over a lot of the housing supply.
And are regularly securing more properties

ad1234

Gatling wrote: »

I'd say that's widespread throughout the various local authorities ,

When you applied did you tick the box asking would you accept other housing ie cluid.nabco and so on .
Might be worth looking into the private associations , who seems to be taking over a lot of the housing supply.
And are regularly securing more properties

Yeah I remember ticking for something along those lines,my husband is going to drop down in the morning to ask about the ones you mentioned there. Thanks for that.
We will keep in contact with them fussyonion. Thanks

hdowney

I was on the Wicklow town council list 5yr before it merged. good knows how long now but I'm also what theyd deem low priority. cramped but single

Gatling

hdowney wrote: »

I was on the Wicklow town council list 5yr before it merged. good knows how long now but I'm also what theyd deem low priority. cramped but single

Everyone one on the list is low priority at the moment there just isn't any housing stock available anywhere unless you get lucky with one of the other housing associations.

20+ years of neglect has had a massive impact on social housing ..

try applying through the choice based letting system and be constantly told you can't apply for anything other than a 2 bed (no issues there ) 2 adults and 2 kids but the 2 apartments all state not suitable for 2 +2 or only suitable for one adult and one small child .

Just be grateful none of us on here are walking the streets

ad1234

Gatling wrote: »

20+ years of neglect has had a massive impact on social housing ..

Your right there! There's a house down from my mother (different council from me) it has been boarded up for two and a half years and they are only now getting it habitable. Its shocking.

Hopefully some of the money the gov spoke about in the budget will help, I have a feeling more is needed though.

hdowney

I heard on the grapevine that four/six (I can't remember which) houses in our town that have been boarded up for forever are being sold by the council. WTF like, there is desperate need for social housing in the town. Now it has been said they are being sold to the Simon community, but still. I think they should be kept as social housing stock, fixed and leased out. I don't know what exactly the Simon would do with the houses, there is a wet and dry hostel in the town which is a bone of contention for some...

Sleepy

Based on recent experience of rectifying this for another council, the reason they can't tell you your position on this list is two-fold.

First off, they probably can't get the answer out of their housing database because the reporting solution provided with it is horrifically over-complicated (i.e. you need to be a BI specialist / IT Graduate to use it rather than someone with a leaving cert who was hired as a general administrator).

The second is less to do with competence / IT issues, and more to do with the reality of attempting to house large numbers of people with a tiny stock of housing. They operate multiple lists so those who are homeless or have a certified medical priority etc. get housed ahead of those on the "needs/transfer" list. So were they to give you your position on the "3 bed list for greystones/delgany", that position is subject to change as those on the "3 bed priority list for greystones/delgany" will be housed ahead of you and people who are behind you on the list in terms of length of wait, can skip you should they get judged as having a higher need for housing than you (i.e. they have a medical issue or are currently homeless whilst you're in a private rental and in receipt of rental allowance. So, were they to tell you that you were 1st on the "3 bed list for greystones/delgany" and 2nd on the list for Kilcoole and then you found out that others subsequently moved into council propeties in those areas ahead of you, you might cause them endless grief when, in reality, they've just been following the rules...

The housing officers do a very tough job imo. The one's I've been working with would count amongst the hardest working of the public servants I've come across in over a decade of working with the sector and get dogs abuse from the public they're trying to help whilst utterly hamstrung by social housing policy they have no input to.

ad1234

Hi I got someone higher up to ask the council if they could get a time frame idea. Apparently the wait for greystones area is 10-12 years. Crazy. Thanks for the replies.

Mrs OBumble

hdowney wrote: »

I heard on the grapevine that four/six (I can't remember which) houses in our town that have been boarded up for forever are being sold by the council. WTF like, there is desperate need for social housing in the town. Now it has been said they are being sold to the Simon community, but still. I think they should be kept as social housing stock, fixed and leased out. I don't know what exactly the Simon would do with the houses, there is a wet and dry hostel in the town which is a bone of contention for some...

Simon will most likely house people there who need some degree of support in order to sustain a tenancy. Basically the folk who don't need to be in a hostel, but cannot leave because there is nowhere else for them to go. They are most likely on the housing list, and have a higher housing need than many on it.

Most councils have boarded up properties, which they simply do not have the capital to fix up. Some people would be stunned to find out just how badly it is possible to treat a house.



And +10000 to the comment about Housing Officers being hard-working public servants. They take an incredible amount of abuse from all sides, and do a very difficult juggling act every day.