City Hall has gone out to tender with plans to build nearly 150 social homes on council-owned land in Cork City, including plans for a 100-home development in Mahon.
The plans, set to cost up to €74m, would see at least 32 homes built on Grattan Street and 16 on Woods Street in the city centre, and 100 at Skehard Road.
If built to budget, it would see each home delivered at a cost of just over €400,000.
In the case of Grattan Street and Woods Street, Cork City Council hopes to build these homes within two years, while it envisages a longer timeframe of 30 months for the larger Skehard Road development.
However, this does appear to be an ambitious timeline given six months is targeted for each project to complete both “architectural design and acquisition of planning consent”.
In the case of planning, backlogs at An Bord Pleanála often mean that cases drag on for years before a decision is given. However, Woods St already has a Part 8 planning approval for a 16-unit four-storey housing development.
Cork City Council said that, in tendering for these developments, a “high-level aim” was to “champion best practice, efficient and cost-effective design and innovative financial and technical solutions for quality accommodation solutions”.
Once the developments are completed, the council provided assurance it will purchase the homes for social housing subject to contracts.
The stark need for more social housing in Cork City, as well as elsewhere around the country, is laid bare by the figures.
At the end of 2023, there were 2,893 households on a social housing waiting list in Cork city.
Just over 1,000 of these households had been on the waiting list for four years or more, while 453 of them were more than seven years on the list.
Furthermore, the figures also show that of those on the social housing waiting list in Cork city, 707 households were living with parents, 236 with relatives or friends and 256 were in emergency accommodation.
A further 1,290 were in private rental accommodation with or without rent supplement.
However, according to the Housing Agency’s summary of social housing assessments, the number of households on the list in Cork city dropped by 25% between 2022 and 2023.
On the other hand, the Housing Agency’s figures exclude the number of households who are in receipt of the housing assistance payment (Hap). At the end of June 2024, there were 2,641 active Hap tenancies in Cork city.