Social housing applicants are turning down homes because they have a ‘snobbish attitude’ to local authority housing estates, according to a Meath Councillor.

Meath County Council is implementing new rules whereby anybody who refuses a home after applying under the Choice-Based Letting scheme is taken off the list for one year.

The applicants do not lose their place on the housing list; however, they are no longer permitted to apply for individual units as they come on stream.

Council estates

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Meath Councillor Nick Killian said some people have good reasons for refusing housing; however, others are too picky about the option on offer.

“Absolutely, there is no doubt about that,” he said. “I see it in my office every day of the week.

“People are offered a house, particularly when they are offered a housing estate, some people have a snobbish attitude still about local authority housing estates.”

Housing

He noted that nearly one-third of the homes offered in County Meath last year were refused.

“There are always good reasons and then there may be reasons which are not as tenable,” he said.

“Take a county that has a local authority estate and at the same time, a housing body is coming in building brand-new houses and what happens is some people will say, right I’m going to hold on. I won’t take the house I am being offered in the local authority estate, but I will hold on and wait until I can get the new house.”

He said other people refuse homes because they want to remain in the village they grew up in or they want to stay close to their extended families.

Support

Also on the show Senator Lynn Ruane said she has never experienced snobby attitudes in Dublin housing estates.

“I don’t know what it is like in Meath, but I can certainly speak for the likes of Tallaght that I have grown up in,” she said. “Most of us want to be housed in our local authority estates.

“I don’t know what the difference is between people in Meath and Dublin, but I have never experience snobbery in our own communities in terms of where we live or being picky.

“If anything, most of us want to stay in the exact local authority estate we grew up in.”

Home

She said there are a host of real reasons someone might turn down a home in a certain area.

“Nobody is just looking at a house and saying no I don’t want that because of the décor or whatever,” she said.

“Housing policy, you can’t really take it in isolation. Where we live and how we live intersects with childcare policy, education, transport, community, whether you are a one-parent family household and things like that.

“From my experience, when I was a young mother, if I was housed outside of my estate, my elderly father wouldn’t have been able to help with the school run so I could get an education

“So, deciding whether we live intersects with so many of our other life choices and out health, our mental health and whether we will succeed as a family.”