We are acting for a client who has been waiting for a decision on her application for social housing for over 13 years. She first applied for social housing in April 2000 and was assessed as eligible as early as August 2000. Average waiting times are stated to be between three and five years but despite extensive correspondence from our client to the relevant council in relation to her outstanding application, no formal offer of accommodation has ever been made to our client.
It may come as no surprise that our client is from the Travelling community. We note that hundreds of people gathered in Dublin earlier this week to protest at what was called the “total failure” of the 15-year-old Traveller accommodation strategy. The appalling facts of our client’s case appear to confirm this failure. Calls have been made for control of housing allocation to the Travelling community to be taken away from city and county councils and for an independent Traveller accommodation agency to be established. The National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee estimates that there are more than 1,200 Traveller families of an estimated total of 9,911 families effectively homeless in the State, more than in 1999.
Our own experience is that the current system is failing to meet Traveller accommodation needs. It is completely unacceptable that one individual could wait 13 years for an offer of accommodation. We intend to issue proceedings very shortly on the basis that the failure of the relevant council to allocate our client social housing amounts to a decision to a refusal of her application. We will also be claiming that our client has been treated differently to other applicants for social housing on account of her membership of the Travelling community.
Rebecca Keatinge
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