The Social Housing Strategy 2020
targets provision of 110,000 social housing units, through a mixture of direct provision by local authorities and approved housing bodies and through the private rental market, mainly utilising the Housing Assistance Payment. The targeted provision will provide for the needs of the 89,872 households identified nationally in the 2013 Summary of Social Housing Assessments as being qualified and in need of social housing supports, with some flexibility for increased demand.
Some 46,584, or 52% of the households identified in the 2013 assessments were found to be dependent on rent supplement. Over time the Housing Assistance Payment will provide a more suitable solution for those on Rent Supplement with a long-term housing need.
In its analysis of the 2013 Social Housing Assessments, the Housing Agency concluded that 35,000 new social housing units would be required over the following 5 years. The Social Housing Strategy provides for the delivery of these units and has been supported by successive Budgets with over €1.7 billion in Exchequer and local authority self-funding allocated between 2015 and 2016.
The 2013 Summary of Assessments was compiled as a result of rigorous analysis which involved local authorities contacting individual households to confirm their continued requirement and qualification for social housing support. It also involved a comprehensive quality assurance exercise on the data, including the elimination of duplicate households. It is not methodologically sound to compare this comprehensive data collection exercise with a snapshot of housing need, in any given county, at a point in time in 2015, as the Deputy has done in recent times.
However, I do recognise that we need up to date and comprehensive data on housing need on an on-going basis. In order to ensure we have that data, the Strategy includes a commitment to undertake housing assessments on an annual basis from 2016 onwards.
