Clare County Council has drafted a new strategy that will aim to meet the housing needs of the growing traveller population over the next five years.
The Draft Traveller Accommodation Programme 2025 to 2029 has set a target of providing almost 100 homes by the end of the decade.
In order to gain an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of accommodation needs, Clare County Council conducted a joint collaborative survey with Clare Local Development Company and approved housing body CENA.
This project involved fieldworkers of travellers gathering primary research from members of their own community.
The survey identified 1,224 people in this county as travellers, which is 21% more than the figure recorded in Census 2022.
The breakdown consists of 497 total households, involving 317 family units and 180 single persons.
The vast majority of respondents identified a house as their preferred type of future accommodation, with 72% wishing to live in a town, with the most preferred locations being Ennis, Shannon, Ennistymon and Lahinch.
The findings also showed that 22% of all traveller households have at least one person with a diagnosed disability, with almost half of these referring to a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression.
Additionally, 39% of traveller households in Clare were found to keep one or more dogs and expressed a desire to keep chickens or horses in the future.
The local authority considers a traveller family to be indigenous to Clare if they’ve been permanent residents in the county for at least three years, and only then will be provided with non-transient accommodation.
Currently, there are 64 units of traveller specific accommodation in Clare, consisting of 41 Houses, 2 Apartments and 21 Bays, of these 11 houses and 7 bays are currently vacant.
5 of these vacancies are due to fire damage and require extensive refurbishment works, while for the remainder, the local authority has noted some applicants are refusing to consider properties in certain areas due to ongoing feuds.
The local authority has also noted a surge in presentations to its Homeless Action Team from members of the travelling community, with overcrowding and the desire to move away from parents the primary issues raised.
Overall, Clare County Council estimates 97 new tenancies will be needed over the lifetime of the 2025 to 2029 traveller accommodation programme.
It’s envisaged that an average of 19 will be delivered each year through a combination of approved housing body units, HAP accommodation, refurbishments and mobile homes.
