There are 118 vacant houses in Galway city and of these 36 were turned down when offered to people on the housing waiting list while 11 needed ‘major refurbishment’.
The figures come from the Galway City Council’s Housing Progress Report for December 2008 which was due to be discussed at Monday’s city council meeting.
However Fine Gael Cllr Brian Walsh said the number of refurbishments and refusals were cause for concern and he said the Galway City Council must take action to deal with these problems.
“It’s disgraceful that 118 houses are vacant in the city. People are waiting to buy houses and City Hall sits on these units that could be made available,” he told the Galway Advertiser. “More and more people are looking for social housing arising out of the deteriorating economic conditions.”
Cllr Walsh alleges that the houses in need of refurbishments are “the same ones that have been on the list for the last six months”. He said council should be carrying out works to make the houses “habitable as there are people willing to take them”.
“It’s unacceptable that it’s taking so long,” he said. “We have a lot of staff in housing maintenance and they should be carrying out the refurbishment works. We are seeing the same units coming up again and nothing seems to be happening.”
While acknowledging that people do not have to accept the house they are offered, Cllr Walsh believes that some instances of refusal need to tackled in a sterner manner than at present.
“About 30 per cent have been refused,” he said. “I believe the council should get tough. If people are not prepared to accept a reasonable offer of accommodation they should be penalised through their housing waiting list points.”
