Housing

Cost rental housing a ‘huge assist’ to social integration

Housing Finance Agency chief says mixed tenure developments are ‘the way we should be living our life’

Barry O’Leary, head of the Housing Finance Agency: cost rental accommodation is a “huge assist” in avoiding social segregation. Picture: Fergal Phillips

The head of the state’s housing finance agency has said that cost rental accommodation is a “huge assist” in avoiding social segregation.

Developers are obliged to provide 20 per cent of homes in new developments for social housing, but there have been complaints that social tenants are being segregated from private tenants in separate blocks in some estates, and cut off from amenities such as communal gardens and playgrounds.

Barry O’Leary, chief executive of the ...