30% rise in housing list applicants - Large number of Immigrants on List

**dandyspencer** · 10th December 2008, 11:57 AM

The Government has revealed that the number of applicants on the waiting list for local authority housing has risen by more than 30% in a three-year period to last March.

Minister of State at the Department of Environment Michael Finneran says applications for homes from people who cannot house themselves jumped from 43,000 in 2005 to 56,000 in March of this year.

The vast majority of applicants are under 40, and while more than three quarters are Irish-born, the number of immigrants rose substantially over the three years.

RTÉ News: 30% rise in housing list applicants

**irelandproud** · 10th December 2008, 04:19 PM

abaut sure there entilted to soacial housing , i cant see what the problem is.

**mollox** · 10th December 2008, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by dandyspencer

Minister of State at the Department of Environment Michael Finneran says applications for homes from people who cannot house themselves jumped from 43,000 in 2005 to 56,000 in March of this year.

That's the quote from the RTE website.
Do these numbers include the applicant and all family members, or just the number of applicants?
If it's the latter, then there's probably c. 200k people looking for housing.

**Trampas** · 10th December 2008, 04:35 PM

EU immigrant workers have the same rights to social housing as do Irish people. Those immigrants must not suffer discrimination in any way. Once they are working here (or have worked here but have lost their jobs) they are also entitled to bring in members of their family and extended family and, once they are declared to be dependents, (e.g. parents, siblings etc.) those family members can be included on a social housing application. Should a local authority have a policy of housing large families first then a large family of EU immigrants must go to the top of the housing list.

**Question R24U** · 10th December 2008, 06:36 PM

Why do we provide social housing to able bodied adults at all? This is a genuine question. Rental property exist, as do relatives and the option of emigration also exists for jobs. Why do we pay for this and lock healthy adults into being forever part of the social welfare class?

**Catalpa** · 10th December 2008, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Trampas

EU immigrant workers have the same rights to social housing as do Irish people. Those immigrants must not suffer discrimination in any way. Once they are working here (or have worked here but have lost their jobs) they are also entitled to bring in members of their family and extended family and, once they are declared to be dependents, (e.g. parents, siblings etc.) those family members can be included on a social housing application. Should a local authority have a policy of housing large families first then a large family of EU immigrants must go to the top of the housing list.