Councillors have voted in favour of an agreement which will lead to the creation of 74 social housing units in Knocknacarra, to be built and managed by the private sector.
In the first project of its kind in Galway created to address the national housing shortage, the project will be led by Cork County Council, built by a private builder on land owned by Galway City Council and managed and maintained by a private company, which gets paid a monthly fee for 25 years before the properties are returned to the local authority.
The two, three and four-bed units will be leased at a nominal rent to tenants on Galway’s local authority waiting list.
The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government pays the project company a monthly charge and no funds come from the Galway City Council budget.
The social housing project will be located at Ballyburke in front of Coláiste na Coiribe with the design yet to be finalised.
The Acting Director of Services for Housing and Social Inclusion, Patricia Philbin, said her department expected to bring a planning application for the homes before the councillors by November in the next stage of the planning process.
Sinn Féin Councillor Mark Lohan while he would prefer to see the project fully funded and built by the local authority, he was glad to see 74 social houses being built.
He also stressed the importance of using clauses in the bid documents to ensure that qualified local contractors were hired on the project.
Cllr Donal Lyons said the only downside was that local authority tenants would not have the option to purchase the homes until at least 25 years – ten years longer than the rules allow on current stock.
Cllr Peter Keane (FF) said the challenge in building 74 social housing units would be in the letting agreements to ensure the project would be a success.
Mayor Pearce Flannery (FG) concurred, saying unless tenants were properly vetted the area could become a haven for trouble.
Ms Philbin said there was a clause in the agreement which would hold back the monthly charge to the private company if tenants or the property were not being managed properly.
A vote was passed by councillors to hand over control of the development to Cork County Council by approving the inter-authority cooperation agreement.
Construction is projected to take 18-24 months.
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