Fringes of estates face `serious' problem of behaviour

Anti-social behaviour is becoming a serious problem in private housing areas on the edges of public housing estates, according to the Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald.

He was speaking yesterday at the publication of a study by Threshold, the voluntary housing agency, of the impact of 1997 legislation which gave local authorities the power to evict tenants for anti-social behaviour, notably those dealing in drugs.

Mr Fitzgerald said Dublin Corporation was currently reviewing its policy and procedures on antisocial behaviour on its estates, which account for 25,000 housing units in the city, and he welcomed the Threshold study as an input into this process.

Threshold vigorously opposed the 1997 legislation, fearing that it would exacerbate the homeless problem. However, it acknowledges that the new powers to evict tenants for anti-social behaviour has been used sparingly by the local authorities.

The purpose of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act was "to demonstrate to the public and concerned communities in 1997 that the Government was `tough on drugs' rather than a co-ordinated policy to tackle the issue of drug-taking", the study says.

"Affordable childcare facilities must be provided to allow young parents, particularly lone parents whose choices are most limited, the opportunity to train, to be educated and to work." More leisure facilities were also needed to combat social exclusion. Evictions alone were too blunt an instrument.

"Local-based approaches to the improvement of the economic, social and physical aspects of housing estates must continue and be expanded in order to try to decrease the number of new drug-users."

Ms Clodagh Memery, Threshold's head of research and policy development, said that estate management in the past had been "minimal to non-existent" but there was now much more evidence of local authorities working "on the ground".

She conceded that the 1997 legislation had proved very effective. A total of 300 "antisocial" tenants had been removed from their homes, most of which were only bases for drug-dealing, and many of those evicted had somewhere else to go.

The number who became homeless was very small, she said. Threshold was more concerned about the fate of individual family members who moved out voluntarily because there was evidence to suggest that they were being forced on to the streets.

Ms Memery said the guidelines on anti-social behaviour should be clearly spelled out in tenants' handbooks, more support needed to be given to families and there was scope for housing associations in providing accommodation to drug-users.

Commenting on the study, the city manager said it took only one or two families involved in anti-social behaviour to destabilise an entire community. Because of this threat, the corporation was often told: "If you don't do something about it, we will."

A total of £600 million, much more than he envisaged four or five years ago, was being invested in renewing or replacing the physical fabric of once-neglected estates, including Ballymun, Darndale and the various flats complexes in the inner city.

But people were more important than bricks and mortar, Mr Fitzgerald said, and it was vital that other agencies, such as the health boards and the Garda, would provide support for struggling local communities in deprived areas.