New housing campaign ‘Home Truths’ tackling accessible housing shortage in Donegal 

The Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) has just launched a new awareness campaign exposing the barriers people with disabilities face to finding wheelchair-accessible housing in Donegal. 

‘Home Truths: Because everyone deserves a place to call home’, highlights the experience of people with disabilities in the housing market and the absence of wheelchair-liveable housing across the country.   

Five Irish Wheelchair Association members have shared their own personal home truths in a series of videos which lay bare the harsh and poignant challenges they face.

See their videos here www.iwa.ie 

Supported under the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) Grant Scheme the project was officially launched by Anne Rabbitte, Minister of State with responsibility for Disability, in Dublin last week. 

The Home Truths campaign is about giving a platform to people with disabilities to raise their housing issues, according to IWA National Housing Programme Manager, Jean Coleman.

“The participants all tell a different story, and they reflect what our membership is experiencing throughout the country including Donegal. 

“Their stories highlight the need for more wheelchair-liveable housing, the inadequacies of Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), and the need for local authorities and the HSE to work more closely together to ensure that there is a personal assistant service in place in tandem with a person being allocated a house,” she said.

"The housing crisis in Ireland has been well documented but our campaign shows that for people with disabilities, it is a crisis within a crisis particularly if you are a wheelchair user," she said.

According to the Summary of Social Housing Assessment 2022 there are almost 5,000 people with disabilities, including physical, mental, intellectual, sensory and others, waiting for social housing from their local authority.

IWA believes this figure is an under-representation of the actual need based on several factors including people not thinking ahead until such time as a crisis arises like parents passing on, as well as the cumbersome, lengthy application process which some people can find daunting.

Irish Wheelchair Association centres in Donegal are supporting members who want to apply to their local authority for housing.

For more details go to: www.iwa.ie