Councillors call for integration of social tenants living in apartment complexes – rather than segregation into one block

Dublin city councillors agreed a policy years ago, they say.

It was that social homes should be fully integrated with other housing in mixed developments, indistinguishable from them, and muddled in – an arrangement which is sometimes called “pepper-potting”.

But that hasn’t happened. 

Instead, while mixed-tenure developments – those with both social, affordable, and fully private-market homes – are common, the social homes are usually delivered in one apartment block, separated out from the rest of the scheme. 

At a meeting of the council’s housing committee on Thursday, most councillors from across the political spectrum spoke in favour of full integration of social homes, sprinkled throughout developments. 

Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Boylan said she suffered exclusion as a child because she grew up in social housing. “Integration is key and social cohesion is what we are calling for.” 

But Mick Mulhern, the council’s housing manager, said during a presentation that it just isn’t always possible to deliver full integration. 

It is better value for the council to buy the homes in a block and manage them itself rather than paying management fees, he said. 

It is easier for approved housing bodies (AHBs) or the Land Development Agency to build integrated communities because they get more funding, said Mulhern, and so have more money to manage properties. 

Councillors pushed back. They still want council policy to favour fully integrated, socially mixed communities, regardless of the challenges, they said.

Ruth Dowling, a council executive manager, said that the most important ingredient for integration is that residents share the play and recreational facilities. 

But, she also said, the council can’t fund management fees in some developments, where social tenants are excluded from recreational spaces – a point of tension in some city complexes. 

Why not?

Most council homes are in “mixed tenure” estates and apartment complexes these days, said Dowling. 

So there may be a variety of social homes, cost-rental homes, private and affordable-purchase homes. 

But often the social housing is “clustered” together in one or two blocks.

“There are considerations when deciding to cluster or disperse and certainly the funding is a massive issue,” said Dowling, at the meeting. 

The council is not funded for apartment block management fees, she said. 

The council would have to pay those, if it owned apartments in a block that was shared with owner-occupiers and private landlords.

In some small private developments, the social housing that the state acquires – through the provision known as “Part V”, where it can buy up a percentage –  is dispersed throughout the development, said Dowling. 

Often though, the council buys a block for social housing in the larger schemes, she said. 

“Sometimes it works out better value for money, and that is a key driver.” 

What is more important than whether the homes are clustered is whether the community has shared amenities like playgrounds, said Dowling. 

Mulhern said that even when the council develops social and affordable-purchase homes, it won’t be providing full integration because the council isn’t set up to get involved with private owner-management companies. 

At Montpelier, formerly O’Devaney Gardens, the housing is mostly separated out by tenure type, said Mulhern. “It's a completely mixed-tenure development but it's not pepper-potted.”

Mulhern said the council needs to have flexibility because there are different funding structures for different tenure types. 

The housing charity Tuath Housing has developed a large, fully integrated housing development at De Verdon Place on the Malahide Road, she says. 

Mulhern said Tuath was able to do that because they own the whole development – a mix of social and cost-rental. The council will see what it can learn from that experience, he said. 

This is possible when the housing charity is the developer; in many other instances, the housing charities also manage social homes which it has bought or leased – and  are also segregated. 

At the meeting, Mike Allen, director of advocacy with housing and homeless charity Focus Ireland, said it is easier for housing charities to deliver fully integrated developments because they get more funding than the council. 

He said there are broadly three options, full integration, clustering (together in a block), and silo-ing where the developments are totally separated according to tenure type. 

“What size and scale of clustering work?” says Allen. “That depends on the environment and what you are trying to do.”

What is integration?

Most councillors still said they want full integration of housing schemes. 

“When we say a mix we don’t mean one block is social and one block is private,” said Fianna Fáil Councillor Deirdre Heney, who chairs the housing committee. “We want a real mix.”

“The research is absolutely clear,” said independent Councillor Cieran Perry. “Integration is good.”

Cost-rental works to create an income mix and the homes should be fully integrated with social housing, he said. 

Perry said that old council-housing areas, like Crumlin and Cabra, had an income mix in the past because the social housing net was wider back then. “You had people in all kinds of work and no work at all.”

Indeed, said Independents 4 Change Councillor Pat Dunne. 

Back in the day, many large council estates, including Crumlin and Marino, were mixed-income because at that time, people who worked in semi-state companies could get a council house, he said. 

“A whole range of workers were able to be allocated those homes,” said Dunne.

These days, social housing is only for people on the very lowest incomes, which is problematic, said Dunne, and that is why the council needs to create that mix. 

Within mixed developments, there are divisions emerging among people who are segregated according to blocks, said Dunne. “In terms of community development and having cohesion, we should look at real pepper potting.”

But Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan and Labour Party Councillor Alison Field said they had encountered challenges with supporting council tenants living in mixed apartment blocks, when there were maintenance issues in nearby homes that were not council-owned. 

Field said she supported, for seven months, a family with sewerage coming into their home from the home above – which was a private rental. 

“The landlord was blaming the management company,” she said. “It just didn’t gel together.”

The family couldn’t cook, she says, and it took seven months to get them a transfer. 

Sharing spaces

Whether the social homes are dispersed through the development, or clustered together in a block, it is essential for integration that all residents can access the same facilities, said Dowling at the meeting. 

Several councillors brought up access to recreational spaces in some private developments, where social tenants have been excluded. 

In June 2023, Dee Roche, who lives in Hamilton Gardens in Cabra, said she regretted taking a transfer from a council house because of segregation within the development.

She wasn’t allowed to access the communal gardens, she said. Worse, the segregation was causing divides among the children living in the development, she said. 

Also in June 2023, residents at The Davitt in Drimnagh said their children had been locked out of the playground – a restriction that was later changed.

“It is a bit tricky in relation to some Part Vs where there are concierge services, gyms and cinemas,” says Dowling. “From a public value for money and funding perspective, it is very difficult for the local authority to justify those costs.”

In some places, residents can pay for that access themselves. The council just can’t afford the management fees, she says. “It’s just not doable unfortunately.”

That said, that ban shouldn’t apply to playgrounds, she said. “It's absolutely not acceptable that people would be excluded from play areas.” 

Some of the high-end apartment complexes have indoor play facilities as well, such as cinemas and party rooms, from which the children of the social tenants would be excluded. 

Perry said the central government should fund equal access to all facilities for its tenants.

“We 100 percent do need a proper policy on this,” said Sinn Féin Councillor Janice Boylan. “I do see the difficulties, but we need to work around these difficulties.”

If that means calling the government out to fund councils better then that is what councillors need to do, she said. “AHBs are delivering integration in social and cost rental because they are better funded than us.”

For some children to be excluded from the playground in their development is absolutely unacceptable, said Boylan. “It teaches children at a young age, scenarios like ‘them and us.”

“I grew up in the flats and there was certain events and organisations that we weren’t welcome to go to because of our address,” she said. “It's 2025 and we need to be promoting inclusion all day, every day.”