Local authorities will be allowed to increase housing assistance payments (HAP) by up to 35 per cent beyond the current cap, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has announced.
Currently, local authorities are allowed to use their discretion to increase HAP payments beyond the current threshold by up to 20 per cent. This is to allow for increases in rents which have put most rental properties out of the range of those who are on HAP payments.
Mr O’Brien told a conference on homelessness in Dublin on Friday that he also hoped to expand the couples rate for HAP to single people and added that this would secure and expand more tenancies.
He also told the conference organised by Feantsa (the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless) he hoped to bring forward legislative changes to strengthen tenants’ rights and tackle short-term lets. He plans to have the legislation passed by July.
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Mr O’Brien said he had anticipated the recent rise in homelessness, with the most recent figures showing 10,049 people homeless in the State in April.
This happened because of the lifting of the ban on evictions earlier this year. He suggested it was not legally possible to retain such a ban indefinitely.
Nevertheless, he suggested the medium-term outlook for homelessness was “positive”, with a number of initiatives coming on stream.
Local authorities have been given the discretion to purchase homes that have tenants in them to avoid those tenants being evicted.
Legislation to restrict the use of second-home properties for short-term letting on sites such as Airbnb will be brought to the Dáil before the end of July.
Mr O’Brien said the suggestion that build-to-rent development should be banned was “nonsense”.
“We have to be honest with people. Do we need more rental properties? Yes we do,” he said.
He criticised Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald for objecting to 1,600 apartments being built in Drumcondra which would have included 160 social homes.
He anticipated that the controversial Croí Cónaithe (Cities) Scheme would “bridge the affordability gap” and allow homeowners to purchase apartments which would otherwise be rented out.
Mr O’Brien said €450 million had been set aside which would allow more than 6,500 households to buy apartments which otherwise would be built to rent.
“That, coupled with the home-share equity which opens on the first of July, will give a lot of potential homeowners the opportunity to bridge the affordability gap between the finance they have and the finance they need,” he said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said HAP must remain “until we build a sufficiency of social housing” and thousands of people are dependent on it.
“The good news is that this year we probably will have a record number of social houses built by the end of 2022 – 8,500 to 9,000 social houses. We need to continue that annually now for the next five years,” he said.
The HAP move was “hugely welcomed” by Labour Party housing spokeswoman Senator Rebecca Moynihan.
“Hard pressed families will be relieved with this news and it is particularly welcome to see attention given to the over 400,000 people who live alone in Ireland. Single people have been particularly impacted by the housing policy failure and this is a welcome break for them,” She added.
Ms Moynihan added though that the Housing Department’s capital spending is €120 million or 21 per cent below its profile. “So while changes to the HAP limits are welcome, it is no substitute for building homes,” she said.
