Annual Report 2016

Social Development Housing Department In August 2016, the restructuring of directorates across the organisation resulted in the formation of the new Social Development Directorate which incorporates the functions of Housing, Culture, Sport and Recreation.

Our Strategy Statement is: “To address the needs of homeless people and families in emergency accommodation, accelerate the provision of social housing, utilise vacant homes and improve the rental sector”.

The directorate is involved in the construction, purchase, leasing and renting of homes, traveller accommodation, homelessness, as well as the ongoing maintenance and management of our own 2,400 housing stock. To efficiently serve our customers, Clare County Council depends on close working relationships with a range of statutory agencies, service providers and advocates. The council works closely with the elected members and sectoral interests on the Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) which met on six occasions in 2016 to discuss and agree a range of policies and initiatives.

Some of the services and initiatives that the Housing Department undertook during 2016 are as follows: Estate management There are now 40 residents associations in local authority estates throughout the county. There was excellent participation in the annual Best Kept Estates Competition, which saw a prize fund of €7,150 being divided among 21 residents' groups. The overall winner and the recipient of the Mary Hennessy Memorial Award was Connaught Road, Scariff.

Ongoing estate management activity includes casework referrals to relevant agencies and dealing with issues of tenancy breaches and sustainability.

Tenant Purchase Scheme A Tenant Purchase Scheme based on incremental purchase principles was introduced during 2016. Under the terms of the scheme tenants with a 57