Charity says rent scheme subsidises squalid conditions

The State's rent supplement scheme is forcing the poorest and most vulnerable tenants to live in "grossly degrading" conditions in substandard bedsits, housing rights organisation Threshold has said.

The 4,500 bedsits in the State, the majority of which are in Dublin city centre, are almost without exception poor quality and many are damp, vermin-infested fire-traps that lack the basic necessities such as fridges and ovens, the organisation said.

A large number of tenants who are in receipt of rent supplement from the Department of Social and Family Affairs have no option but to accept accommodation at the lower end of the market because the scheme does not allow them to top-up the payment, currently €130 a week in Dublin, from their own resources.

"Tenants are generally single men who are experiencing social or economic problems. In Threshold's view, the conditions they are expected to live in are grossly degrading", Threshold chairwoman Aideen Hayden said.

Few landlords were willing to accept rent supplement tenants because, unlike an ordinary tenancy where a deposit and rent are generally paid in advance, the supplement is paid in arrears and initial payments take up to two months. Landlords tend only to rent to supplement recipients if no one else will rent the property, Ms Hayden said.

"Rent supplement should be paid in advance by standing order and deposits must be paid promptly. No landlord should be left at a disadvantage by accepting a rent supplement tenant. These administrative changes are not rocket science, but they would represent a major shift away from sub-standard accommodation."

Ms Hayden was speaking at a Threshold conference in Dublin yesterday.

Threshold director Bob Jordan said that while there had been improvements in the regulation of the private rented sector, legislation relating to standards needed updating.

"The current regulations on minimum standards date back to 1993 and are very basic. A landlord doesn't even have to provide a refrigerator or a cooker."

Of the 7,000 rented units inspected by local authorities in 2005, more than 2,000 did not meet basic standards, Mr Jordan said, but only a "handful" of landlords had been prosecuted.

Rental accommodation standards could be improved if institutional investors became involved in the market, Prof Tony Crook of Sheffield University said. Such investors would use professional property management agents and housing investment trusts, which would maintain a higher standard of accommodation than currently exits, he said.