COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 14, 2019

QUESTION NO. 8

QUESTION: Councillor Teresa Costello

To ask the Chief Executive what is the process in place for persons on the Medical Priority/Disability List to express interest in dwellings, as they don't have access to Choice Based Lettings.

REPLY:

Every effort is made to provide persons with a disability or specific medical need with an appropriate home having regard to medical requirements, housing needs and proximity to service providers and supports.

Housing Applicants who have been awarded “Medical Priority for Standard Housing” have access to the Choice Based Letting (CBL) system.

However, applicants who have been awarded “Medical Priority for Specially Adapted Housing” do not have access to CBL where their needs are very specific and cannot be met and require delivery of specially adapted homes.

Where an existing specially adapted property becomes available, reports from occupational therapists and other medical supports are assessed to determine the property meet an applicant’s needs, before an offer of housing is made. In some cases, a site visit to the property is carried out with the applicants and their support team to assess the suitability of the property.  All applicants can also at any stage discuss their accommodation needs with staff in the allocations sections.

On this basis, neither purpose-built, specially adapted properties, nor properties that have had significant Disabled Persons’ Grants works carried out are advertised through CBL. Instead these properties are usually matched with the needs of a housing/transfer applicant. In some cases an existing tenant awaiting significant DPG works to be carried out on their current home may also be considered for the property as the terms of the scheme require the Council to make the best use of all specially adapted housing stock and it can also be more feasible to transfer a tenant to an available specially adapted home where it is excessively costly or challenging to carry out the required works to their current property.

The Council is committed to providing additional specially adapted homes both through our social housing construction programme and in conjunction with Approved Housing Bodies.