Choice Based Letting system for social housing "punitive"
A Dillon's Cross lone parent says Cork City Council staff withdrew their offer of a house in Fairhill, but she's banned from the Choice Based Letting system for a year for refusing the offer.
A single parent who has been on Cork City Council’s housing list for nine years says she was locked out of the Choice Based Letting (CBL) social housing allocation system for a year for “unreasonable refusal” after council staff asked if they could withdraw the offer of the house she had bid on.
The Choice Based Letting system is an online portal run by the local authority where people eligible for social housing can bid on properties owned by the council or approved housing bodies.
Maria O’Sullivan, a mother of three and a self-employed lactation consultant, had bid “in desperation” on a house in Fairhill, on the recommendation of homeless services, but expressed doubts about moving from the area where her two youngest children attend school.
Maria and her children are living in a private two-bedroom rental, where she receives Housing Assistance Payments. She is self-employed and her income fluctuates. She shares a bedroom with her eight-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, while her young adult daughter has a room to herself.
At the end of the summer, the family nearly became homeless and she went to register with homeless services.
“I had registered with homeless services because we were at severe risk of being made homeless,” Maria told Tripe + Drisheen. “I ended up bidding on a property with CBL while I was under stress. Someone from Homeless Services called me up and told me that a property had come up that I should bid on, so I did. I had never bid on anywhere so far away before.”
She bid on the four-bed house on September 7.
“The house was in Fairhill and I’ve been living in this area for 35 years,” she said. “My children are able to walk to school here.”
“At the start I thought, I suppose we can make it work, but I felt I was pulling myself out of the area the kids have grown up in. Housing is about more than bricks and mortar: I’m very much embedded in this community and I’ve been here for a long time and it’s where my kids go to school and is where my support system is.”
There is no direct bus route connection the Fairhill and Dillon’s Cross areas: even though they are 4km apart as the crow flies, it’s 8km and two buses, via Patrick’s St, to get from Fairhill to Dillon’s Cross.
Maria was offered the house on October 13. She told Tripe + Drisheen that she expressed some doubts, but was setting about sorting out paperwork issues such as a tax clearance certificate which would be needed to formally accept the offer.
On November 11, she received a call from a Cork City Council Housing Officer. “I said, ‘I’m just trying to get all my paperwork together,’ and I thought we were going to arrange to go and view it, and then she told me I’d said things that made her feel I wasn’t going to settle there, that she was worried I’d end up looking for a transfer.”
The Housing Officer asked Maria for permission to withdraw the offer of the house, and gave her 24 hours to think about it. When the Housing Officer called back, Maria consented to the offer being withdrawn.
These conversations were over the phone and Maria has no record of them.
“Normally, if you refuse a house on CBL, you have to sign a form saying you’ve been brought to see the house and that you’re refusing it,” she says. “I didn’t go and see it, and I didn’t sign a form saying I was refusing it: she said, ‘I feel I should withdraw the offer.’ She said she hoped it wouldn’t affect my status on CBL. But it did.”
Maria received a letter from the council telling her that she had “refused a reasonable offer by Cork City Council of the allocation of a bid dwelling” and that she now can’t use the CBL system for a year.
Does the suspension system reduce refusals?
The system whereby you are suspended from bidding on any other properties for a year if you make what’s deemed an “unreasonable refusal” was introduced in 2015 to deter people from making casual non-serious bids.
However, while the refusal rate reduced in the first year that suspensions were introduced, it has increased since. In 2016, the refusal rate was 13%. In 2017-2020, there was an average refusal rate of 15%, and this almost doubled in one year in 2021.
Almost one third of the 983 houses offered on the CBL system in Cork City in 2021 were refused, it was reported in February. Almost 60% of refusals were on the grounds that the property was too far away or unsuitable.
“Where is the evidence that people will change their behaviour if you suspend them for one year?” Maria said. “Why is this a strategy they would employ: have they seen it working?”
“It’s like you’re being punished”
“It’s like you’re being punished for making a rash decision on a very bad day under a lot of stress. It’s called Choice Based Letting, but there is no choice.”
Maria now faces a year in which her son will turn 12 and is still sharing a room with his mother and sister, and in which she can’t bid on other properties.
“I’m just feeling stuck now, there’s nowhere to move for it. I feel it’s very punitive. Social housing is about building communities and that should be taken into consideration. People need to be offered houses in the area they’re living in.”
Tripe + Drisheen contacted Cork City Council to clarify procedure in instances when council staff ask to withdraw an offer and whether it is common practice to still impose a year’s suspension in these circumstances. They had not responded by the time of publication.
We will update this article when we receive a response.
Callout: we’re interesting in hearing other stories of people’s experiences with the Choice Based Letting systems in both Cork City and Cork County councils. Please get in touch if you or someone you know has something you’d like to contribute: we’ll talk to you in confidence. Our contact details are here.
One small typo in the opening paragraph. Lone rather than loan 😊