More than 1,000 social houses ‘under-occupied’ by older tenants in south Dublin who don’t need additional rooms

More than 1,000 larger social houses in South Dublin are “under-occupied” by older tenants who no longer need the additional rooms, an Oireachtas housing committee has heard.

South Dublin County Council chief executive Daniel McLoughlin said there was a “considerable level of under occupation” of three and four-bedroom social houses by households “solely comprising older persons”.

The council wanted to encourage the over 55s living in social, or private housing, to consider “rightsizing” to smaller homes he told the committee.

The council was facing a “confluence of issues” with an ageing demographic, particularly in older suburbs inside the M50, a growing number of older people on the social housing waiting list, and an increasing number of single people living in larger houses. “At present, approximately 11 per cent, representing 1,100 homes, of our current social housing stock is assessed as being underoccupied.”

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The council had developed a “right sizing” plan which aimed to deliver 600 “age friendly” homes over the next five years, 236 of which were already under construction and were due for completion this year or in 2023.

These homes would be allocated to people on the social housing list who had “age related priority” as well as people whose social homes were too large for their needs. In addition, “older people” — over 55 years of age — who owned their homes but were willing to surrender these houses to move into smaller social housing units would be considered for “rightsizing”. The council currently had 70 applications from these homeowners seeking “private rightsizing” Mr McLoughlin said.

Older social housing tenants would not be forced to move to smaller homes under the council’s rightsizing plan, he said.

“People obviously have a right to reside in those homes. What we’re trying to do through our rightsizing policy is encourage people voluntarily to move within their own locality to a rightsized home, provided they are comfortable with that and that fulfils their expectation in terms of moving forward in life. There will be no obligation on anyone to move.”

The term rightsizing had replaced “downsizing” as the issue had the potential to be “very, very emotive” he said.

“Every time a government mentioned it, it was as if we were suddenly forcing people out of their homes. I think it’s really tricky, it has to be around enabling and understanding and bringing people on the journey.”

The council had appointed a rightsizing officer to explain the concept to people and was developing the smaller homes in existing communities in “little clusters where people can look out the window and see them, so they don’t feel threatened by the move,” he said.

“It is emotive, there’s a delicate balance between having the conversation and then you’re on the airwaves tomorrow defending the conversation because you’re forcing people out of their homes, and nobody wants that.”