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Troublemakers evicted A CRACKDOWN on troublemakers has
led to 24 families being moved out of city council estates in Limerick
over the past four months.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said it had not given any rent subsidies
to help the former council tenants pay for private accommodation.
The clear-out commenced with the appointment of two enforcement officers
in August 2007.
Of the troublemaker families who have moved 20 surrendered their homes
rather than fight repossession orders in the courts.
In the other four cases tenants went to the courts and lost.
Limerick City Council director of housing Kieran Lehane said the campaign
had been very successful.
He said: “We want to show our tenants the city council will take
action and it is so important to demonstrate this through the courts.”
Mr Lehane said since August 2006 they had received 293 complaints from
tenants about anti-social neighbours.
“We did follow up investigations in relation to all these complaints
and managed to effectively resolve 180 almost immediately,” he said.
An HSE spokesman said they have not helped to rehouse any of the former
council tenants in private rented property through the rent subsidy scheme
which it administers.
At present 2,126 privately-owned houses and apartments in Limerick are
being rented by people receiving HSE rent subsidies which vary between
€97 per week for a single person and €172 for a family.
The HSE has denied claims it is encouraging anti-social behaviour by helping
families involved in crime move to better houses through the rent subsidy
scheme. |
