SPC 1 - Minutes
Minutes of Meeting of Strategic Policy Committee 1 – Housing & Corporate – Held on Tuesday, 6th September, 2022 at 10.00 A.M. in The Council Chamber, County Hall, Riverside, Sligo
MEMBERS PRESENT:
- Councillor Arthur Gibbons (Chair)
- Councillor Gino O’Boyle
- Councillor Declan Bree
- Alan McMenamin (PPN Community and Voluntary)
- Trevor McDaid (Business Pillar)
MEMBERS ATTENDING VIRTUALLY
- Pippa Black (PPN Social Inclusion)
OFFICIALS IN ATTENDANCE:
- Mr Jim Molloy, Director of Services
- Mr Damian Willis, Housing Investigations Officer
- Mr Sean Martin, A/Senior Architect
- Mr Mark Cummins, A/Senior Executive Engineer
- Ms Lorraine Fitzgerald, Administrative Officer
- Ms Mary Farrell, Assistant Staff Officer
APOLOGIES
Apologies were received from Pascal Connolly (Trade Union Pillar).
INTRODUCTION:
The Chair, Councillor Gibbons, welcomed all to the meeting and especially Trevor McDaid (Business Pillar) who was a new member of the Committee. He sought the agreement of all for the meeting to be recorded for the purposes of minute taking. This was agreed.
PRESENTATION BY IRISH WHEELCHAIR ASSOCIATION
A presentation was given to the meeting entitled ‘Think Ahead, Think Housing’ by Jean Coleman, Irish Wheelchair Association National Housing Programme Manager.
She advised the meeting that Think Ahead, Think Housing was a campaign run by the Irish Wheelchair Association to encourage and support people with disabilities to think about their housing needs now. She stated that it was important that people with disabilities plan for their future and they can all live independently with the correct supports. She further stated that it would also help local authorities if housing need was identified at an early stage. She told the meeting that 27% of the homeless population have a disability and they are more than twice as likely to report discrimination relating to housing.
She said that the IWA’s website www.iwa.ie/thinkhousing was very informative with frequently asked questions and a link for a person to apply to their local authority for housing. She thanked the Committee for the opportunity to give the presentation.
The Chair, Councillor Gibbons thanked J Coleman for the excellent presentation. He said that the Council had a very active Disability Consultative Committee of which Councillor Bree was chair. He reiterated the importance of persons with a disability living independently. He asked that the presentation be circulated to all members as the information was invaluable.
P Black informed the meeting that a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) was being set up in Sligo and J Coleman said that she was pleased to liaise with P Black regarding this.
T McDaid thanked J Coleman for the presentation and said that he was very familiar with the IWA Best practice access guidelines in his work as an architect. He praised the volume of information available on the IWA website. It was agreed that all members should receive a copy of the IWA Best Practice access guidelines.
Councillor O’Boyle asked to be provided with the number of houses that the Council have that are wheelchair accessible. S Martin, A/Senior Architect, said that the housing delivery action plan had identified the number of houses that would be allocated to persons with a disability in each year. He welcomed the title of the presentation of thinking ahead and stated that in order to get funding from the Department, the Council must justify and show the need to the Department and all applications must be accompanied by OT reports.
Councillor Bree also thanked J Coleman for the presentation. He referred to the new social housing application form which allows a person to indicate if they need wheelchair liveable accommodation and asked if there was a specific section in Housing where all the files relating to people with disabilities were located. In reply, S Martin stated that all applications are broken down by the need associated with the application. He further stated that when a housing scheme over 10 units is being prepared, the Council would allocate 15% to people with disabilities if the need was in that location.
Following on from a further query from Councillor Bree regarding what agencies are there to encourage people with disabilities to consider independent living, J Molloy, Director of Services, having thanked J Coleman for the excellent and informative presentation said that all options for independent living needed to be made available for persons with disabilities and it was difficult to have accurate figures as persons may not always indicate on an application form that they have a disability.
The Chair, Councillor Gibbons reiterated his thanks to J Coleman for the excellent presentation.
MINUTES OF MEETING OF SPC1 HELD ON 14TH JUNE, 2022
It was proposed by Councillor Bree
Seconded by Councillor O’Boyle
AND AGREED
“To confirm the minutes of the Meeting of the Strategic Policy Committee 1 – Housing and Corporate – held on 14th June, 2022
MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES:
P Black enquired regarding having a share point for documents for the committee and in reply, J Molloy, Director of Services, said that I.T. Department were looking into this with a view to getting it set up.
P Black also said that she had asked at previous meeting how many of the 142 improvement notices which were served on landlords were remedied within the allowed 12 weeks and J Molloy, Director of Services, said that he would arrange for a report on this.
P Black referred to the language used in the Minutes of the 14th June Meeting under the heading of “Implementation of Housing and Disability Plan 2021-2025”, which is in person-first language, i.e. “persons with a disability”. She advised that disabled activists, and particularly those in the Independent Living Movement of Ireland and the Sligo Disabled Organisation (DPO) have a preference for identify-first language, i.e. “disabled persons”. She also stated that the neurodiverse community in Sligo have expressed the same preference.
ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR STRATEGY
D Willis, Housing Investigations Officer, read a report to the meeting on anti-social behaviour which had been circulated to the members in advance of the meeting and he said that the current policy had been adopted by the members of Sligo County Council in 2018.
In reply to a number of queries from members, D Willis stressed that each case was different and the main concern was that many people were reluctant to supply details of the anti social behaviour. He said that the complainant was entitled to have his/her details held in confidence and this made the problem more difficult to resolve. He said that it was challenging to bring cases to court as people were apprehensive to give evidence but on some occasions the Council had been successful.
Regarding tenancy warnings, D Willis stated that 24 tenancy warning notices had been issued since the current policy was adopted in 2018. He said that they were not issued without firstly having discussions/ house visits with the tenant and sending them a letter.
Regarding a timeframe from initial complaint to a satisfactory conclusion, D Willis informed the meeting that it could take anything from 3 months to 18 months depending on the situation. He said that the Council would have between 300-350 complaints a year.
With regard to a query about the benefit of having more resources, D Willis replied that it would be favourable if the Council had a dedicated team to deal with anti-social behaviour.
The Chair, Councillor Gibbons, thanked D Willis for the report.
VACANT HOMES STRATEGY
M Cummins, A/Senior Executive Engineer, read a report to the meeting on vacant homes strategy and the vacant property refurbishment grant which had been circulated to the members in advance of the meeting.
In reply to queries from members, M Cummins said that following the Council’s vacant home survey, the Council had written to the owners of vacant homes. He said that the Council doesn’t have a lot of power if the property is vacant, for example the owner may be in a nursing home, there may be a recent death or probate. He further told the meeting that the vacant property refurbishment grant was encouraging people to refurbish their property with a view to putting it on the market and currently there was a lot of vacant homes on www.daft.ie
Councillor O’Boyle stressed the importance of using CPOs to acquire properties and queried the number of CPOs that had been carried out. The meeting was informed by M Cummins that there are CPOs under the Derelict Sites Act and CPOs under the Housing Act and there are different criteria for each. He informed that meeting that 3 no. CPOs of derelict sites had been carried out since 2021.
J Molloy, Director of Services, said that it was quite limited where CPOs could be carried out unless the Council were willing to buy the property.
Councillor Bree said that he was of the understanding that if a house was long term vacant i.e., 2 or 3 years that the Council could use CPO powers to acquire it. He stated that the Council don’t appear to be using CPOs to acquire houses that are in reasonable condition. He noted that a full-time vacant homes officer was to be appointed and he welcomed this.
J Molloy informed that meeting that a report would be prepared for the next full Council meeting regarding the Council acquiring long term vacant dwellings.
P Black queried the maximum refurbishment grant for vacant properties and M Cummins informed the meeting that the standard grant was €30,000 but if the refurbishment costs were expected to exceed this, a maximum top-up-grant of up to €20,000 would be available where the property was confirmed by the applicant to be derelict (i.e., structurally unsound and dangerous) bringing the total grant to €50,000
WORK PROGRAMME LIST
The work programme list had already been circulated to the members in advance of the meeting. It was agreed that Official Languages Act 2003/Irish language Scheme and Housing Grants be included on the agenda for the next SPC1 meeting.
UPDATE ON HOUSING DELIVERY
S Martin summarised report already circulated to the members and which was also on the Council’s website showing update on housing delivery 2022-2026 and outturn for 2022 to date and giving a breakdown of targets for each municipal district and the type of development. He informed the meeting that the 6 no. builds were at Bunninadden, the 12 no. turnkeys were at Sea Ville, Finisklin Road, phase I, the 5 no. builds (AHB) were at Newgrove, Sea Road for persons with special needs. He said that there was a turnkey AHB scheme at Avena (6) and the Fairways, Tubbercurry (8) with 7 Part V to be delivered primarily at Farmhill, Strandhill Road and 2 Part V turnkey being delivered at Sea Ville.
Councillor O’Boyle enquired regarding the turnkey development at the Ursuline College and the meeting was informed by S Martin that phase 1 would be delivered in 2022 and phases 2, 3 and 4 would be delivered during 2023.
Councillor Bree thanked S Martin for the report and queried if the delivery target of 46 would be reached. S Martin said that he was optimistic that it would be reached but seeing that it was the latter end of the year, the Council were endeavouring to ensure that delivery would be made.
J Molloy stated that the Department were keen to ensure that the figures were realistic and they should not be shown on the 2022 list if they were not going to be delivered until 2023.
P Black thanked the executive for the link to the Housing Delivery action plan which was sent to members in advance of the meeting.
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY SPC MEMBERS
Submitted by PPN Reps:
“The Council called for submissions to the NorthWest Homelessness Action Plan 2022-2025. The closing date for this was 4pm on 12 August 2022. Why was this not the main item of our last agenda? Surely this is something SPC1 should be making submissions on. Failing that, why was this call for submissions not circulated to the members of this committee?”
J Molloy, Director of Services, informed the meeting that submissions for the new Plan were sought from stakeholders. The call for submissions was widely advertised on the Website, social media and via known stakeholders. A Draft of the new Northwest Homelessness Action Plan 2022-2025 would come back to the SPC1 members for consideration when it was ready.
CORRESPONDENCE
There was no correspondence.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Councillor O’Boyle asked if the SPC1 would write to the Minister to ask when the income limit thresholds for social housing would be increased and this was agreed.
END OF MEETING:
The business of the meeting concluded at 11.30 a.m.
Meeting Date 06/09/2022