Isolation, loneliness and access add to Donegal's older people’s housing crux

Isolation, loneliness and lack of proper access to a multitude of services is adding even more pressure to elderly people’s housing concerns in rural areas, a Donegal councillor has said. 

And by integrating them into bigger town and village populations, this in turn could free up larger houses in rural areas that could be utilised by younger families currently on an ever-expanding housing list, Cllr Niamh Kennedy (Ind) has said. 

During a discussion in relation to the ongoing housing crisis at the January monthly meeting of the Donegal Municipal District (MD) Cllr Kennedy pointed out that it was also important to bear in mind the ongoing plight of many of the MD’s elderly population, when it came to the county’s housing policy for the future.

Many were getting older and living in isolation in the more rural areas of the MD in larger properties. These can also be quite empty, following the growing up and leaving of the children and it was important to also recognise that their welfare could be better catered for by them moving into towns and villages.

There, they had more easily accessible facilities, and closer proximity to services, including the likes of shops and the church and where not already closed, post offices.

ABOVE: Cllr Niamh Kennedy is a member of Donegal Municipal District on Donegal County Council 

She said: “I think that is what we need to do. We have an awful lot of people who are very isolated and very alone, where there are no street lights, no footpaths, and even rural transport is not accessible to them at this stage. 

“A lot of them obviously have medical issues with having to get appointments with doctors, Even getting to banks can be very very difficult. It is more difficult for older people in general these days anyway even with regard to technologies. It is a really really scary world out there for many who are not computer literate, who are on their own, who don’t have the support they need including the medical attention they need.

“We are looking at the moment with Rural Transport and a task force that has been set up to address a lot of these issues. 

“One example of this is that if you get a hospital appointment and you are living in Glencolmcille and the date and time for that appointment is 10 o’clock in the morning. There is no consideration and there is no-one in the hospital in the administration section that looks at an address and goes ‘well that there is an hour and a half to us, can we not decide that tse people be allowed in at 11.30 or noon on the day’.

We need them to try and coordinate with public transportation systems as this again adds to the rural isolation system. People aren’t coming out anymore, They are afraid to come out with the burglaries that are going on and everything else. 

“People need to be brought into the town centre,” she explained.

This could help them reintegrate with the local community and at the same time, some of those that might be living in larger houses, could be placed into modern warmer homes, not requiring them to fill the coal bucket and fire and that those older and bigger houses could be utilised for family homes. 

“The older people would not have to lit a fire, the heating is one for them, it is a nice temperature, they are in a local area close to the shop, the church and with no hills to walk. And all that on their doorstep and people on the streets that they can pop into and say hello. That needs to be addressed going forward,” she said. 

“On the other hand we have got a lot of people and families, who have no accommodation and could do with houses that are larger, with children in these families that need to go to school and which in turn would help the national schools in these rural communities.

She added; “So the older population, if they wanted to, could come into town centres and let the younger families then move into these houses that have plenty of room, plenty of space and play, but have become too large to manage by that older population. A common sense approach is needed”.