There were 68 social housing refusals recorded in Tipperary in 2022.
This comes as figures show over 5,000 offers were turned down nationally last year – and one in five over the two year period from 2021.
Local Councillors said that it was frustrating to see so many refusals during a housing crisis and in attempt to address this they introduced Choice Based Letting, which allows people to choose available homes that they are eligible for.
However, one South Tipperary man, Thomas, told Tipp Today he has bid through the system numerous times with little success.
“I am not impressed I believe it is working in parts of the county but not everywhere and from my experience being on the housing list nearly three years and I know there are people on it way longer than that and the one bedrooms don’t come up and when they do come up they are snapped up like there is no tomorrow. You do apply though CBL I check every Tuesday without fail and there is just nothing on it, when they come up they put it up on it and it is just unreal you don’t even get a letter or email.”
Looking at this in percentage terms there was a 14% refusal rate of social homes in Tipp last year.
This is a slight decrease on the previous year where there 110 rejected of the 446 offers which is a 24% refusal rate.
Some of reasons people turned down homes were small gardens, no space for motorbikes, the location of parking, with Tipperary County council stating that some offers were not even responded to.
Thomas went on to say it can be particularly hard for single men:
“Small garden, yes I would understand if the person who had two or three kids under 5 – but say a single person like myself would love little garden we could do our own thing put a few flowers and things like that. It is very hard and in my experience Fran and from talking to people around town and all that yes it is and the stuff you have to go through, it is unreal- it’s just jump the hoop, jump the hoop , jump the hoop and it gets lower and lower to see how far you will go.”
