By City Council Reporter
news@TheCork.ie
Cork City Council committees meet today after the summer break in
advance of the first full Council meeting of the autumn scheduled for
Mon, Sept 9.
The Housing Committee will be told that at the end of August there
were 7487 eligible applicants on the city’s social housing waiting
lists – an increase of 700 on the January figure of 6793.
The committee will also be told that there are currently 195
applicants awaiting assessment to go onto the lists, bringing to 7682
the combined total of those on the lists and waiting to go onto them.
A report given to members of the Housing Committee also indicates
that there are now 488 properties owned by the Council which are
currently vacant.
Socialist Party Councillor and Housing Committee Mick Barry said today:
“The Fine Gael/Labour Government have slashed funding for social
housing with the result that 7500 applicants are now on the city’s
housing waiting lists. The Pact parties have failed to act on the
vacant housing crisis. This is a real scandal. Five hundred vacant
houses are an insult to the people on the waiting lists and a magnet
for anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping. Emergency funding is
needed to tackle this crisis now.”
