No to council house..... Reason: No room for trampoline

A FAMILY on the social housing waiting list refused an offer of a council home because there wasn’t enough space for a trampoline, a Cork County Council official has said.
During a heated debate on social housing waiting lists in County Hall, the reasons why applicants refuse offers of council homes were outlined by frustrated council officials.
The discussion took place amid claims that many on the official waiting lists don’t actually want a council house, but were merely on the lists so they could receive Rent Allowance for private accommodation.
Officials, at a meeting of the Southern Area Committee of the local authority, refused to accept criticism of the long delays in allocating houses by pointing to a high level of refusals by people on the 7,023-strong waiting list in Cork county.
Senior Executive Officer in the council’s housing department, Karina Cremin, said offers of homes were often refused because of a lack of garden space, adding that one applicant specifically cited a lack of space for a trampoline in their refusal reasons.
The council’s director of services, Mary Ryan, said 60 offers were made on a group of houses and apartments at Fernwood in Glanmire in the past three months, but 26 of these were refused by applicants on the waiting lists.
Glanmire councillor Noel Costello said he was stunned by the high level of refusals on what he described as high quality accommodation.
Ms Ryan said the procedure for allocating homes was too cumbersome and insisted the refusal rate was delaying the allocation of houses to people with real need.
However, a local Fine Gael councillor, Veronica Neville, who has been campaigner for improvements to the local authority housing stock, accused council officials of smirking at “legitimate reasons” for refusing an offer of a home.
Cllr Neville said a family could legitimately refuse a home on the basis that there was no space for their child to take part in a hobby such as trampolining. She said a garden was a very important part of a home for many families with young children.
“We are talking about very human things here. This is not just a house, it’s a place for them to live too,” she said.
Councillors and officials both acknowledged that many people on the social housing waiting lists were “not interested” in getting a council house.
This is because people need to be on the lists to receive social welfare Rent Allowance towards the cost of private accommodation, which many would prefer over a council home.
Labour councillor John Mulvihill said: “I know people who have gone on the housing list but they don’t want a house. They only want Rent Allowance.”
An assessment of housing could potential halve the numbers in “real need” of housing, the council officials said.