Vacant houses in a Kildare town must be repaired and rented out
Criticism
Vacant houses in a Sallins estate must be dealt with before a new cooperative housing project opens there.
Asking for a commitment that this be done, local councillor Carmel Kelly said she was referring to KCC-owned properties.
She said she had visited the area and saw no no progress on the work that needs to be done. Cllr Kelly said some of the buildings have roof leaks.
Cllr Bill Clear said 16 houses are vacant in Castlefen and this is very unfair on the community living there.
He acknowledged that there were issues with some tenants but it is important to tackle the vacant houses issue
“This is not a new issue,” he said, adding that official council figures do not reflect the number of vacant houses.
In a report KCC official Veronica Cooke said not all of the properties in Castlefen are council owned.
“The council is currently in the process of preparing units for reallocation and they will be allocated as soon as they become available.”
Ms Cooke said that weather-related roof work is scheduled to be undertaken this year to some apartment blocks - but this can’t be done until summer time.
It’s expected that the social housing, being developed by Tuath, will be completed by the end of June and the council is obliged to provide a list of tenants “in a timely fashion.”
Ms Cooke said all allocations are dealt with under KCC’s policy for allocating homes to achieve “good estate management objectives and integrated communities”. She added that occasionally this “can lead to apparent delays in occupation of vacant properties.”