Nineteen council units were offered for rent in Ballina in January
Three people refused to accept tenancies offered to them by Mayo County Council in a renovated vacant home in the Ballina Municipal District in January.
In his monthly report at the February meeting of Ballina Municipal District, senior official Declan Turnbull outlined that 19 units were offered last month with 13 accepted, three offers are pending and three refused.
Cllr Annie May Reape expressed concern over the refusals.
“The list is endless for housing, we get calls about it everyday and we see here that three people have refused an offer for housing,” she said. “It is upsetting to think that they would refuse.”
In response, Mr Turnbull said he did not have any specific reasons to hand for these refusals but said there were many reasons why people would refuse an offer such as an unsuitable location or for family reasons. He added that it was great that the municipal district had units to offer to people on the social housing list.
Mr Turnbull’s report showed that there are 12 local authority units and 18 long-term letting units currently vacant with eight under repair.
In response to a query from Cllr Marie-Therese Duffy regarding the vacant, “colourful” houses at the bottom of Pearse Street, Mr Turnbull said these homes are part of a larger site owned by Mayo County Council and once an overall plan for the whole site is in place, he will have a further update on the future of the “colourful” houses.
Meanwhile, there were eight homeless cases in the Ballina area in January, including two cases involving children. Cllr Michael Loftus remarked there had been a jump in cases from December, where zero cases were recorded.
Mr Turnbull said he did not know if this was a trend across the county but it was the Ballina experience that a lot of people facing homelessness will make temporary arrangements for a place to stay over the Christmas period before coming to the council office in the new year.
- Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
