Respond tenant says estate is a 'great little community'

Savanna Mati, her partner and her two children live in an estate built by Respond, which she describes as "a great little community".

They are among Respond's 17,000 tenants.

Unable to secure a home, Ms Mati, who is now in her late thirties, moved in with her partner's mother and went on the housing list.

They remained on the list for six years, during which time, they had their first child.

All three shared the same bedroom.

After a number of years, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council contacted them to say that Respond, which works with local authorities, had built a new estate of social and cost rental houses in Stepaside.

"What we were told was that Respond were actually building places, basically affordable housing, but also to take some pressure off the housing list," she said.

Ms Mati and her family moved into a two-bedroom home in the estate two years ago, which enabled her to have a second child.

"We're there now two years and it's a great little community," she said.

"There's no differentiating between cost rental and social housing, we're all one community," she added.

Respond builds housing estates that aim to create vibrant neighbourhoods and communities.

This means that the estate where Ms Mati and her children live includes a community centre that has activities for adults and children.

Ms Mati said there is "a lot of stuff being done in the community centre".

"There's adult DIY classes, fitness classes but also for the kids, there's everything," she said.

"Christmas, Halloween, Easter, there's always an event going on," she added.

Respond aims to deliver up to 1,000 new social homes and up to 250 affordable cost rental homes, for those for whom the market rents are too high, to enable more families like Mati's to live in communities created to meet their needs.

Respond's annual report found there were 666 new social and cost rental homes delivered by the country's largest approved housing body last year.

Respond manages 7,700 properties that house more than 17,000 tenants.

In its report, construction commenced on 669 homes in 2023, which meant that by the end of the year, 1,452 homes were under way.

That compares to 1,453 that were stated as being under construction in the 2022 annual report.

Respond said a record 4,000 new social and cost rental homes would be under construction by the end of 2024.

The strategy of the approved housing body, which has been delivering homes for 40 years, is to develop social and cost rental homes to create diverse and inclusive communities.

The report which has been launched by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien shows that by December last year, the approved housing body owned/and or managed 7,761 properties, a rise from 7,084 the year before.

According to the report, Respond secured €805m in loans from the Housing Finance Agency, compared to over €634m in 2022.

There was also a significant rise in the number and the cost of reactive repairs and maintenance on homes in 2023.

Last year, 22,366 repairs were carried out at a cost of just over €5.6m compared to 12,416 repairs in 2022 which cost €3.9m.

Respond says energy efficiency and providing warm, affordable homes is a main priority.

In 2023, €2 million was invested in the upgrade of properties.

The energy retrofit programme received a €1 million boost, with an equal match from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), elevating the total annual investment to over €3.09 million.

Over the past 11 years, energy retrofitting has surpassed €36 million according to the report.

Key projects in 2023 included the energy efficient refurbishment of 54 homes in Wexford with renewable heating systems and the upgrade of windows, doors and insulation.

Other projects included the delivery of 153 social homes at Long Mile Road in partnership with Dublin City Council, 93 new homes in partnership with Cork City Council and 89 new homes with Galway City Council.

Respond has said it is "strongly committed" to increasing the national housing stock, by buying land and funding the construction which is overseen by in-house experts" to ensure quality and cost control.

It builds homes that it subsequently owns and manages in perpetuity for the State.

Spokesperson Niamh Randall said the unique construction-led model provided a blueprint for cost-effective, consistent delivery of large-scale mixed tenure homes, incorporating both social and cost rental homes.

"Each development follows our evidence informed Housing Services Delivery model and includes community hubs, and often several of the additional community services we also provide, including Early Learning and School Age Care services, and services for older people, readily accessible for families.," she said.

Launching the report, Darragh O’Brien said that it was through the hard work of approved housing bodies like Respond, that the social and cost rental housing supply was increasing.

"We are going in the right direction in meeting the demand for affordable housing," he said.

Separately, Mr O'Brien said work is ongoing in relation to new housing targets.

"What we need to do is not just set the targets, but show how we can get there," he said.

Mr O’Brien said the national planning framework had a big say in relation to how much land needed to be zoned to address population projections.

To give people "an idea", he said, he reiterated a range of 50,000 plus homes.

"People can just pluck figures out of the sky, some of the opposition as well, and say we'll deliver 60,000, we'll deliver 70,000.

"I know as someone who took over when we were delivering 20,000 homes a year, the work that has taken to nearly double that output to hopefully this year to be on or about 40,000 that required," he said.