Is social housing in an area a bad thing?

B

Billbuck

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Currently living in a nice area, new development, in amongst various developments that are 10 - 20 years old.

We have a nice house, one of probably 150 or more that have been built here in the past 5 years. We like the location & Dublin city center is 20 mins away by bicycle.

The issue is there is a new strategic housing development approved with building commencing this year.
The council and developer have agreed to move the part V commitment for the new development to two almost finished apartment buildings in our development, relatively close by.

I'm not feeling good about the idea of two blocks of 20 social housing apartments going in close by.

To the point of this post, my question.
Is there a reasonable chance that this concentrated social housing will just integrate like the majority or is my thoughts of selling up because of it justified?

I'm hoping for balanced views, not the knee jerk reactions that appear on some forums.

It needs to be noted that there is plenty of social housing in the area already and there is no trouble but that existing social housing is peppered throughout the area, not concentrated in blocks.

I'd also like to point out, I have no problem with social housing, I belive it to be necessary, and to use that old adage, some of my social circle are in social housing and they are nice, regular people.
 
Thoughts of selling up might be knee-jerk. You are in an area that you are happy with, a quality property that is probably A-rated or close to it. Commuting distance to Dublin. 150 units plus an additional 20 to be populated (or is it 2 x 20?). The social housing is probably not qualitatively nor architecturally too different from the rest of the development. People like your friends will move in as you say. Could there be some hard cases? Possibly. If there is, what then? What do you expect your neighbourhood to morph into - Beirut? If a problem develops, you can refer to the Council before things get more serious. If an issue developed with your next door neighbour, you don't have this recourse. Where would you move to anyway? Are you wealthy enough that you can insulate yourself from such neighbourhoods? There will be more focus on housing delivery in the next few years and naturally more social housing as a proportion of that. What if you move and bump up against the same issue elsewhere? Incurring solicitors fees and estate agent fees on the sale and more conveyancing/moving costs with a different home - a bit extreme until there is a genuine issue I'd say.
 
You would have to be very unlucky to get neighbours from hell. Thankfully they are in the minority.
 
Thank you for the objective and well reasoned responses, much more useful than knee-jerk exaggerated reactions that are generally found online!
 
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