Saturday, January 27, 2018

New faces at Co Housing meeting

There were quite a number of new faces in the attendance of the second meeting of the Kilcullen Co Housing Group, held in Fallons last week, writes Brian Byrne.

Founding member James Brennan said it was a very encouraging turnout for the Group, which is working to acquire land in the Kilcullen area to establish an affordable housing community initiative.

Those present were addressed by John Moore of the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance, based in Bray, Co Wicklow, an Approved Housing Body which already has a major co-housing initiative under way in Dublin.

The Kilcullen group was formed to help middle income earners get on the property ladder in a fair and affordable way.The group had its inaugural meeting in November.

The schemes involves people with pre-approved mortgage facilities pooling their resources to build housing on plots of land, ideally acquired from a local authority. John Moore said his organisation is currently in discussion with a variety of local councils on behalf of groups similar to the Kilcullen Co Housing Group.

James Brennan said that an initial possibility of acquiring land in the Athgarvan area, suited for up to ten homes, had stalled. But he says the group is actively looking for other locations, both in Kilcullen and in the general area.

Pictured are John Moore, Riadhan McBride, James Brennan and Claire Kelly.