It’s estimated it would cost over €700 million to build enough social housing to meet demand in Clare.
A new report has found this county has one of the worst ratios of local authority housing to private housing in the country – and recommends Clare County Council boost social housing stock by almost 60%.
When devising a delivery plan for social housing developments, local authorities and the Department of Housing look at the “unmet need” for social housing in an area by assessing the number of households qualifying for social housing support who aren’t currently in receipt of it.
The Parliamentary Budget Office uses the term “ongoing need” to refer the gap between the official measurement of the unmet need and the actual number of households who may require long term social housing by including households in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment as well as those on the social housing list.
The PBO’s “Social Housing Ongoing Need” report for 2023 identifies 4,646 households in Clare as having an ongoing need with accounts for 3.6% of the county’s population.
Just 7.5% of Clare’s total housing stock is local authority owned which is the eighth-lowest rate in the country.
As a result, the report recommends Clare County Council boost its social housing stock by 58%.
In order to build accommodation to address the ongoing need of the county, it’s stated the local authority should spend €732 million – €378 million of which would go towards social housing with the remaining €354 million going towards the construction of HAP properties.
Nationwide, the report identifies 115,425 households as having an ongoing need.
This includes 92,116 dependent children – or just under 7% of all children in the country.
And you can hear more on this on Clare FM’s Morning Focus from 9am this Wednesday.
