Most AHBs primarily address general needs, leading to a significant gap in services tailored for tenants with specific needs. This results in the following issues:

• Lack of adapted housing and appropriate support services.
• AHBs often lack the expertise to adequately support tenants with specific needs, such as mental health issues among older individuals.
• Many older tenants wish to age in place but are at risk of being transferred to nursing homes due to societal and political factors, including inflation, rising rent and house prices, inadequate pensions, difficulties in maintaining independent living, and potential nursing care needs due to health decline.
• Lack of prioritisation in housing allocation for individuals with severe medical conditions, with most resources and attention being directed towards issues related to drug and alcohol addiction.
• The integration of IoT technology and marketplace solutions typically focuses on general needs rather than niche markets, such as those catering to specific disabilities, due to perceived low profitability.

Repairs emerge as a major concern, as gathered from tenant complaints and satisfaction surveys. The system faces organisational and management challenges, primarily due to insufficient resources for quick responses.

Communication Breakdowns: There are significant communication issues between landlords and tenants. Tenants often do not receive callbacks regarding repair requests, leading some to attempt repairs themselves or stop calling altogether.

Slow to respond: Some tenants felt their concerns were trivialised, with advice to simply clean their properties with anti-mould materials.

Tenants often perceive long waiting times for repairs as poor customer service, not realising that the response system categorises issues based on urgency, which adds to their frustration.

Capacity Challenges: Landlords are inundated with complaints, leading to overwhelmed response systems.

Contractor Limitations: When repair contractors visit properties, tenants often raise new issues that cannot be addressed due to the contractor’s fixed daily schedule, causing additional delays.

Access Issues: Non-access to properties or tenants being unavailable when contractors arrive leads to repair rescheduling, which can escalate issues if left unresolved.

There is a significant connection between poor housing conditions and various health problems, particularly affecting vulnerable individuals.

Public Health Concern: Heating and warmth in housing should be treated as a public health issue, yet current policies often overlook this connection.

Lack of Investment: The government is not investing adequately in the intersection of health and housing. More push is needed for this to happen, as investment in health in housing currently does not yet appear economically beneficial.

Housing Providers’ Focus: Housing providers tend to concentrate on housing-related funding and regulations, neglecting health considerations within their services.

Potential Health Risks: Poor housing conditions can lead to respiratory issues (like asthma), increase winter deaths among older people, impact the immune system, aggravate pre-existing health conditions, and expose individuals to harmful pollutants.

Homelessness Impact: A lack of adequate housing contributes to homelessness, which can be traumatic for children and adversely affect their mental health.

Specific Health Concerns for Older People: Issues such as mould infestation and inadequate insulation are directly linked to health risks, including increased mortality during winter.

Tenant Experiences: Those living in poor housing conditions reported various health issues, including chronic sore throats, chest problems, lung issues, panic attacks, suicidal ideations, and stress-related skin conditions.

A significant problem arises when communication between tenants and landlords is not effectively managed. This issue is mostly observed during repair and maintenance management. For example, the tone of communication can lead to tenants feeling defensive and emotionally attached.

Tenants find it challenging to reach out for help to their landlords due to various factors, including:

• Long response times or no responses at all.
• Transition from personal interactions to impersonal, business-like communication.
• Inconsistent tenant officers and staff changes.
• Insensitive comments from officers, leading to feelings of blame for residential issues.
• There is a notable power imbalance between landlords and tenants that affects communication.

Housing bodies encounter the following communication issues with their residents:

• There are specific challenges in teaching vulnerable groups, such as older tenants, how to use complex home machines and systems.
• Insufficient information on the maintenance of ventilation systems.
• Ineffective communication regarding how tenants can manage their equipment.
• Inadequate information was provided to tenants related to the response and repairs process, assistance with complicated machines, and overall communication strategies.
• The scattered nature of properties across the country, limited staff, and a focus mainly on property-related issues hinder effective communication and management.

Our stakeholders acknowledge that tenant behaviour is not the sole factor affecting health and housing quality. However, several related issues can still be observed in the current social housing environment, such as the following:

Misunderstanding of Systems: Many tenants struggle with the proper use of ventilation machines and heating systems, resulting in inadequate heating, CO2 buildup, high bills, and mould or condensation problems.

Habits Contributing to Mould:

• Hoarding affects airflow, light, and heat distribution.
• Tenants often refuse to use clothes dryers due to high energy costs, leading to indoor clothes drying, which contributes to mildew and dampness.

Despite the attempts at behavioural and ventilation changes by tenants, mould continues to thrive due to structural problems, insulation issues, and poor repair quality.

Ineffective communication between tenants and landlords or management can lead to inadequately addressed repairs, with some issues being rescheduled or unresolved.

Some tenants are hesitant to address mould issues, fearing infection from disturbing it, and may prefer relocation over tackling cleaning efforts.

Funding Gaps: The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) provides funding for 50% of retrofit costs, but the source for the remaining 50% is often unclear, creating financial challenges among AHBs and LAs.

Limited Grant Coverage: Available grants focus on a narrow range of technologies, leaving some practical solutions, such as certain thermodynamic systems, unfunded.

CLSS Properties: Properties constructed between 1991 and 2009 do not qualify for any retrofit funding, further complicating the retrofitting efforts of aged properties.

Inadequate Resources for AHBs: Current funding and grants received by AHBs are insufficient to manage existing properties, deliver new housing, and simultaneously undertake retrofitting. The limited available debt further discourages private investment.

Need for Policy Change: There is a pressing requirement for policy adjustments that increase grant funding to alleviate financial burdens and support simultaneous housing development and retrofitting.

Economic Link Between Health and Housing: The argument is made that improved housing quality (warmer, more sustainable properties) correlates with better health outcomes. Health and housing must be addressed jointly for this connection to be recognised by the government.

Funding Grant Structure Issues: Recent changes by SEAI to a per-component grant system are seen as unsuitable, especially across different regions with varied needs.

Retrofitting of Historic Properties: Dublin City faces significant challenges in retrofitting older buildings to enhance their energy performance, highlighting the need for focused strategies in urban areas.

One of SHINE’s main concerns is addressing low-cost environmental sensors and data privacy concerns for residents in smart housing environments. While these sensors can provide valuable insights into living conditions and energy efficiency, they also pose significant data privacy risks, as sensitive information can be collected and shared without users’ full understanding or control. Reports indicate that users often encounter complex data privacy agreements, which further complicate their ability to safeguard their personal information (van der Schyff et al., 2023). The concern is heightened by the idea that raw sensor data can be analysed and combined with external datasets, increasing the risk of de-anonymisation and potential misuse by third parties (Kröger, 2019).

In response to these privacy concerns, the SHINE team has developed a sensor design methodology that prioritises user privacy while maintaining the functionality of the system. Using edge computing for data analysis reduces unnecessary data transmission, thus enhancing user control over their sensitive information (Fei et al., 2023). The proposed system encompasses a non-intrusive sensor suite that continuously monitors various environmental factors within social housing, generating actionable insights for residents. Reports are designed to offer transparency, allowing users to choose what information, if any, to share with external entities like the residents’ housing authorities.

Ultimately, this technology aims to empower residents and social housing management by providing tools that enhance understanding of critical living conditions while navigating the complexities of data privacy. The outcomes are expected to inform policy interventions and promote the adoption of smart technologies in social housing contexts, enabling stakeholders to address challenges relating to health, well-being, and environmental sustainability (Cali et al., 2023). 

Read more here: “A Privacy-focused Data Solution for Understanding and Improving Indoor Environmental Quality in Social Housing From the SHINE Project”, presented at the Data for Policy 2025 conference at The Hague, Netherlands.

The diagram below shows SHINE’s blueprint of how the sensor works, from detecting and analysing home environmental data to sending this information on to the residents’ housing body for immediate response.