Record Wicklow Housing List
November 29th, 2000
Evidence of the increasing national housing problem was highlighted again in a Focus Ireland report on the overall situation facing people on local authority housing lists. The country's leading homeless organisation report showed an alarming eighty one percent rise for County Wicklow since 1999 with a current total of 1515 households on its housing waiting lists compared to a total of 837 for last year.
Wicklow County Council responded by blaming the Celtic Tiger as a factor contributing to the housing problem. Local authorities nation-wide are suffering from a shortage of qualified

1515 households waiting for a home
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planners and this is slowing down the development and building of new local authority housing schemes. The council responded to the alarming eighty one percent increase on their housing lists by promising a much improved development and construction campaign for the coming year.
Focus feel that a large proportion of the problem could have been avoided or at least should not have reached such a crisis point, if the overall housing shortage and linked problem of homelessness had been effectively addressed and deal with in the first instance. "These latest figures show the housing crisis and the linked issue of homelessness is a national problem affecting all counties in Ireland and not just Dublin" said Declan Jones, Chief Executive of Focus Ireland.
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