Eight houses vacant in the Manorhamilton municipal district

Cllr Felim Gurn said that the council needs to use the stock they already own to house people who find themselves on the housing list. 

"Do we need to increase workers in the housing section on the ground; do we need to increase the housing budget and turn the properties that the council have back into use? There is an issue with manpower and an issue with funding restraints," he asked, speaking to the Leitrim Observer.

Cllr Gurn had asked what the current vacancy rate in housing stock in the Manorhamilton municipal district is and what is the current turnaround of vacant houses being put back into use. 
He asked if there was a shortage in funding that needs to be addressed in the housing budget to alleviate the pressure of returning houses back into use, considering inflation and materials increases because we will not be building social houses for the next few years. 
A report by the director of services, housing and community, corporate services, cultural and emergency services revealed there are currently eight houses vacant in the Manorhamilton municipal district and the current turnaround time is 27 weeks.

Cllr Gurn continued,"Because we are only building eight social houses in Manorhamilton municipal district, I wanted to know if we had vacant houses that need to be turned around and need to be ready."

He said that in the county, there are 300 people on the housing list and there are no houses to rent in Manorhamilton municipal district. 
"Private landlords are suddenly putting their property up for sale or putting their rents up," he stated.

He said the issue is further exacerbated by Manorhamilton's location and added that "no building has taken place and no estates have been built since the crash in 2008."

Cllr Gurn, who took a tour of the new social houses in Manorhamilton following the meeting, added that it was "sad that there is not more money to build social houses because we have a serious housing problem and builders out there, unfortunately, are not building houses and you have young people emigrating because of the housing problem.
 
"It's a major major problem in the Manorhamilton municipal area with a population of Leitrim gone up by 3,000 people, never mind the number of Ukrainians that have come into the country. We haven't stepped up and built social houses and housing estates again."