More than €100 million is to be spent on refurbishing empty social housing and adapting private homes for older and disabled people.
Most of the money, €91 million has been allocated by the Department of the Environment, with €10 million from local authority grants and the local property tax (LPT).
More than 1,000 vacant local authority flats and houses will be refurbished for people on the social housing waiting list at a cost of over €20 million. Dublin city and Cork city will receive the largest allocations, at just under €4.4 million and more than €3.6 million respectively. Priority for these homes will be given families facing homelessness.
Half of all the funding, €50 million, will be available for adapting private houses for older or disabled people. The money can be used to build extensions or for the adaptation or homes to improve mobility, through installing stair lifts or access ramps. Half of that funding will come from the exchequer and the remaining money from local authorities. Most of the local authority money, just over €15 million, will come from property tax receipts.
A further €11 million will be made available for local authority house adaptations and extensions to meet the needs of tenants with a disability and to deal with overcrowding.
The remaining €20 million will be used to improve local authority flats and houses to make them more energy efficient. Property tax will fund just under €2 million of this work.
