A Dundee resident has been on the waiting list for a house for the entire life of Dundee City Council, it has been revealed.
New information obtained by the Tele shows that one tenant of a council home in the city has been on the waiting list for a new property since 1996, when Tayside Regional Council became Dundee City Council.
The local authority insists that the tenant has been offered the chance to move into other houses, but has not taken up those offers.
The resident is one of 7,265 folk who are waiting on a move to a different council property, according to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the Tele.
Housing convener John Alexander said that the council and housing associations that form the common housing register have a range of people on their waiting list.
He said: “Some are adequately housed and merely want to move areas, some own their home but want to move into sheltered accommodation as they get older.
“Others are in critical needs due to medical conditions or homelessness.
“Basically, there’s a mixed bag of people, backgrounds, and, more importantly, needs — and our allocations policy allocates points to those in the greatest need.
“There are people on our list who have no assessed need — zero points — who will likely sit on the waiting list for considerable periods of time until circumstances change.”
Stella Carrington, chairwoman of Charleston Tenants Association, said she was “shocked” at the length of time that the tenant had spent on the list.
She added: “To hear that someone has been on the list for 20 years is unbelievable.
“I have never heard of it before but I will be looking into it. I hope there aren’t more people out there with similar situations.
“We have people who are waiting long term for housing and families who are in boarding houses — I think that we need to do a better job.”
Mr Alexander also warned that the list was set to grow as more agencies joined the common housing register.
He added: “We want to have one application form for all council or housing association properties and one list.
“As you can imagine, as organisations come on board, the lists will increase as we take on their applications but so will the number of properties that we let and the number of people being rehoused.”