In Fingal, the journey to the top of the social-housing list is painfully slow

Michael Conway slept rough during the Covid-19 lockdowns. His legs became so swollen he could hardly walk, he says.

He was admitted to hospital. Doctors took weeks to figure out what was wrong with him, he says. Eventually, they did a colonoscopy and discovered he had inflammation of the bowel, he says.

They removed his bowel and he was left with a stoma bag. He may need future operations, he says. Also, he caught Covid-19 in the hospital and developed long Covid, he says.

When he was discharged, he was placed in a hostel in the city centre, with no cooking facilities – but he needs to stick to a special diet because he also has diabetes.

“Because I can’t cook things myself,” says Conway, a tall man wearing a light blue woollen jumper, sitting in Ann’s Bakery on Henry Street. “That is the killer.”

Conway closely watches his position on the social housing list.

When Fingal County Council granted him medical priority for social housing in September – and he shot from number 404 to 34 – he really thought he would be housed soon, he said. “You really get your hopes up.”

But in the nine months since then, he has moved one position from 34 to 33 for a home in Balbriggan. And, he has nudged up just a few places on the lists for Malahide and Swords too.

Labour Party Councillor James Humphreys, says that the situation is not unusual.

But Fingal County Council and the Land Development Agency are planning and building social homes in developments in Swords and Balbriggan, he said. “He should see some movement over the summer.”

Homeless and unwell

Conway says that he originally joined the Fingal County Council housing list in 2010 but was later removed after failing to return a letter. In 2016, he was put back 0n the list.

He lost his accommodation in 2021, slept rough for a time, and moved into the hostel in

October 2021, he says.

Fingal County Council initially refused his application for medical priority, and he appealed, he said. “I had to jump hoops to get it.”

In April 2023, he was number 404 on the list for a two-bedroom home in Balbriggan, emails show.

After he was granted medical priority in September 2023, his position jumped to 34 for Balbriggan – and a home seemed close. “You would think it would start moving,” he says.

Now, he is also 47 for a home in Malahide and 48 for a home in Swords, according to a screenshot from his council account.

Alot of social housing is allocated through the choice-based lettings system, says Conway, and he applies for homes regularly, although he thinks that system is crazy.

Choice-based letting is when councils advertise homes and people on their social housing waiting lists can apply. The prospective tenant doesn’t get an opportunity to view the home.

It is scary applying for a permanent home without ever having seen it, says Conway.

“They don’t let you view the places. It’s just what you see on the page,” he says. “It’s madness.”

“You could turn up there and the place could be a hovel,” he says.

Into the future

Fingal County Council hasn’t responded to queries sent Thursday asking how many people on its medical priority list are homeless, and whether it’s normal for the people to barely move on the list in nine months.

The council is allocating new social homes, though. It has allocated 391 so far this year, according to the chief executive’s report this month.

Last year, it allocated 708, and the year before 717, say past council reports.

But the reports don’t give a breakdown by place – how many were in Balbriggan say, and how many in Lusk.

And the council is building some more social homes.

Figures compiled by the architect Mel Reynolds, using Department of Housing statistics, show that Fingal County Council and housing charities delivered 340 new social homes in its area in 2023.

That’s still down from a peak of 461 new social homes in 2019.

The council also gets some more homes in private developments that are not included in those figures.

But, the number of people applying for housing in Fingal is far greater than the number of social homes that the council and housing charities are delivering.

The council received more than 2,000 housing applications in each of the past two years, and 1,000 in the first half of 2024, according to the chief executive’s report this month.

Labour Party Councillor James Humphreys says that Fingal County Council and the Land Development Agency (LDA) are planning and building homes in Swords and Balbriggan. “It comes in waves,” he says.

The Balbriggan list should start moving soon, says Humphreys, because the LDA  is gearing up to build 817 homes at Castlelands.

The masterplan for Castlelands says that it is expected that 10 percent of these homes would be social – as did correspondence between the LDA and the council from November 2021.

An email between the LDA’s head of property, Phelim O’Neill, and Fingal CEO AnnMarie Farrelly also said: “Envisaged delivery of the scheme will be over a ten year period.”

Humphreys also said that there are more than 2,000 private homes being built in Fingal, – so the council’s cut of those, under Part V legislation, should bring around 200 more social homes.

A small development at Bowden Court in Swords – which is 11 homes – should be completed this summer, he says. “They should start allocating people this summer to that one.”

Construction on several other developments in Swords are also due to start later this year, he says.  “The pace is picking up, you just wish it would pick up quicker.”

Meanwhile, Conway says he can see homes being built in the county but he still isn’t moving up the social housing lists.

His long Covid leaves him exhausted, he says. The regular room checks in the hostel, every four hours, disturb his sleep, he says.

He says he feels stuck. “There is nothing I can do,” says Conway, shrugging his shoulders, downcast. “If I was younger I’d get a tent and pitch it somewhere.”