People in Ardee 'putting lives on hold' amid choice-based-letting shortage

People in Ardee are "putting their lives on hold" due to a lack of houses available through choice-based-letting (CBL).

Choice-based-letting allows approved social housing applicants to view and bid on properties. 

The comments were made by Sinn Féin councillor Pearse McGeough who told the March meeting of Louth County Council that there is a "complete lack of houses" in the Ardee area on CBL. 

"I did previously say that there’s nothing going on CBL for this area and it’s causing grief to a lot of families. Individuals are putting their lives on hold. They’ll log on at 12 o’clock tonight to find out if there is anything on CBL for them and they’re disappointed," he said. 

Cllr McGeough said more need to be done to make houses available for applicants. 

He also called on the local authority to alert elected members to houses that will be made available, so they can inform their constituents ahead of time. 

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Ger Murphy, Director of Services for Housing with Louth County Council acknowledged there were less houses available in Ardee compared to Dundalk and Drogheda. 

"That’s reflective of the fact the majority of the delivery is in the Dundalk and Drogheda, areas where most of our housing units are being delivered," he said.

However, Mr Murphy said there is a "small number of units coming on stream" for the town. 

"Our plan is certainly to deliver more in Ardee. We are looking at a number of options on that. We have a number of areas that are of interest to us that we’d like to pursue. We would like to bring more units on stream in Ardee and then on CBL," he said. 

He also added that the allocations team in Louth County County Council are "looking at a mechanism as to how to alert members when houses are going on CBL".

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.