Council residents in south Dublin have described cold, mouldy and poorly insulated houses they live in in a new survey, with one describing their home as being like a “meat locker”.
Residents of 25 houses in Sallynoggin took part in the survey carried out by the Community Action Tenants Union (Catu) in conjunction with Maynooth University’s Just Housing project.
The houses, which were built in the 1950s, include some in Pearse Gardens and Pearse Villas and are owned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council (DLRCC).
The survey of these homes comes after a protest by residents of the Pearse maisonettes, a separate development in Sallynoggin also owned by DLRCC, over similar conditions.
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Some 88 per cent of respondents to this survey said they had at least one serious problem with the condition or maintenance of their home.
The most common problem, reported by 21 out of 25 people, was not being able to keep the house warm due to a lack of insulation, old, draughty or poorly fitted windows and doors, and old, inefficient heating systems.
One of the respondents described their home as like a “meat locker”.
Several people said the solid block construction of the houses meant it was not possible to add cavity wall insulation and that the houses needed to be externally insulated.
Some 44 per cent of respondents said the lack of insulation had resulted in condensation and dampness, and this was causing serious issues with mould in their homes.
More than half of the respondents reported health issues as a result of their living conditions, including pneumonia, children with repeated chest infections and other respiratory problems including colds, flu, asthma and COPD.
[ The apartment I’m renting is mouldy and damp. What can I do?Opens in new window ]
The cold conditions in the homes was resulting in large heating bills for many residents, with several respondents saying they spent between €80 and 100 per week to keep their homes warm.
More than half of the respondents said DLRCC was unwilling to undertake the type of major renovations required to address the issues, such as insulating the homes or replacing windows and doors.
Lynn Patton lives in a DLRCC-owned two-bed terraced house in Pearse Gardens with her mother and daughter.
The exterior walls are “really cold” and the minute the heating switches off, “you instantly feel cold again”, she says.
This coldness of the uninsulated walls meeting internal heating, combined with indoor water vapour, results in condensation and mould.
“When you wake up in the morning, the windows are streaming with water, and all around the window ledges. The blinds are starting to go mouldy,” she says.
Ms Patton says the family members keep vents open, clean off the mould and paint over it, but “it’s no sooner cleaned or painted over when it’s coming back. It’s a constant battle.”
“My Mam is sick, she has blood cancer, and in January, February and March this year she was in hospital with a chest infection that turned into pneumonia. I think a lot of that is to do with the damp and the coldness,” she said.
“No matter how much we keep the heating on, the house is always draughty and cold – it’s just not nice to live in. I have an eight-year-old daughter as well, and I really worry about what effect that will have on her chest. It’s really worrying.”
Ms Patton stresses they feel “blessed to have somewhere to call home”, particularly in the midst of a housing crisis, something she says the family is “very aware of”.
However, she says the conditions they are living in “just aren’t great, especially when you’re paying your rent”.
“You would hope that they would maintain the houses a little bit better,” she says.
The issues seen in these homes could be addressed by retrofitting insulation, replacing windows and doors and upgrading heating systems, the survey says.
Catu has called on the Government to increase funding to local authorities to cover these kinds of works, and for DLRCC to clarify what its plans are for the estate.
When asked about its plans for these homes, DLRCC said it “could not confirm” when they would be included in a retrofit programme.
