Irish Wheelchair Association has launched Think Ahead Think Housing 2023 it’s annual housing campaign for more social housing for people with disabilities in Mayo and across Ireland.
Think Ahead, Think Housing is a campaign for disabled people, encouraging them to think about their housing needs and apply to their local authority for housing for the future.
According to Martina Reid, who oversees Irish Wheelchair Association services in Castlebar: “Think Ahead, Think Housing is for anyone with a disability who wants to move out of home and begin their independent life or for parents of older children with a disability who want to move out but don’t know where to start. Our campaign is encouraging and supporting people to think about social housing and apply to their local authority for housing sooner rather than later.
“Across our membership, we see that there is very little wheelchair liveable housing available through private rental or local authorities. At Irish Wheelchair Association, we are campaigning for change, but disabled people need to apply to their local authority for social housing in order to be included in local authorities' new housing development plans, which will take a number of years to be completed. The Government’s national housing strategy, Housing for All, aims to increase the supply of social housing to an average of 33,000 per year over the next decade through €4 billion in state funding per year, disabled people cannot be included in these plans if they do not apply.
“We know that in Mayo and across Ireland there isn’t an accessible housing shortage, there is a complete absence of any wheelchair liveable housing options. As a result 1,300 young and middle-aged people with physical disabilities have been forced to live in nursing homes for older people because of the lack of accessible social housing. This cannot be the future and there is a lot of work to do locally and nationally for our housing campaign.
“Before 2021, it had not been possible for a disabled person to specifically include their accessibility requirements on their social housing application form. So, we are calling on people with disabilities who want a home of their own to contact their local authority for the new social housing application form. We encourage people with disabilities to also complete the HMD- Form 1 Disability and /or Medical Information Form in order to apply for priority status on the social housing waiting list.
“In my experience, many disabled young people or parents of young adults with disabilities are not even aware that they can apply for social housing" according to Martina Reid. They know that accessible rental accommodation doesn’t exist in Ireland and they just don’t know where to go from there. It is a daunting task to apply for social housing but once you start the process you will find there are supports there to help you and if you are eligible for social housing at least now you have some plans in place to start building a future.”
To start an application contact your local authority or visit www.iwa.ie/thinkhousing
