New ‘rightsizing’ scheme will let older owners sell their homes and move to more suitable housing

Council launch new initiative to allow people downsize

An innovative scheme in which older people living in private houses that are too big for them could sell their homes to Meath County Council and then move into smaller and more suitable accommodation rented from the Council was announced to county councillors this week.

Under the terms of the scheme - called a Rightsizing Financial Contribution Scheme - aimed at the private owners aged over 55, people would provide a quarter of the net proceeds of the sale of their property to the Council.

They would then qualify for a smaller Council-owned property and go onto differential rent. The scheme, a first for the County Council, was announced by senior executive officer David Jones as part of the new revised housing allocation scheme. The words “downsizing” will now become “rightsizing” in the Council’s lexicon.

Councillors were told that there about 4,000 applicants on the Council housing list, of whom 2,669 were on the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) scheme.

The nett housing waiting list was 1,700. The official emphasised that the scheme was completely voluntary – if people wanted to stay on in their own private homes, they could do so. The terms of the new scheme will now go forward to the Council’s strategic policy committee on housing to be considered.

The revamp of the social housing allocation scheme was the subject of a presentation to the councillors by David Jones. The scheme covers units provided by the local authority or by the group (voluntary) housing bodies and is a time-based list related to the time an applicant has been waiting for housing. The Council will continue to provide for people who are homeless, members of the Traveller community, older persons and people with a disability.

The Council will also introduce new technology to the allocation scheme in that it will advertise available social housing units online on a weekly basis and that system will be available by the end of this month.

Sinn Fein Cllr Eddie Fennessy said he had reservations about one aspect of the housing allocation scheme. “If you are offered a Council housing unit and you refuse it you are suspended from the list for a year. You get two chances at regular allocations.” He said that the document “in the round” was pretty good and particularly the “right sizing” aspect.

Over the last number of years he had had queries from a number of people who had homes that were too big for them and wished to downsize. He welcomed that aspect of the scheme.

Fine Gael Cllr Gerry O’Connor expressed some doubts about the “rightsizing” scheme, saying that people might have paid off their mortgage, paid all their bills, and were then having to go onto differential rent. He wondered if any of the proceeds of the sale of private houses would be taken into account when assessing rent of the council property. Mr Jones said that differential rent was based on income coming into a house and savings accruing interest or investments, or lump sums were not taken into account.

Social Democrat Cllr Ronan Moore said that while he welcomed the positive aspects of the scheme, he was worried about the computer literacy of people who were on the waiting list for housing.

He knew himself that information could sometimes “fall through the gaps” when it came to IT. If people were waiting for years and were on the top of the list, there were huge repercussions if people missed out on their allocation. Many people were not comfortable with IT.

A scheme of 47 housing units for older persons will be made available over the next few years, the council was told.