I propose to take Questions Nos. 437 to 439, inclusive, together.
Responsibility for the development and provision of services to support victims of domestic violence rests with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the delivery of such services is managed through the Child and Family Agency, Tusla. In addition, Cosc, the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, which is an executive office of the Department of Justice and Equality, works to ensure the delivery of a coordinated response to issues of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence across Government through the implementation of the National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence 2016-2021.
The allocation of social housing support to qualified households is a matter for individual housing authorities in accordance with their allocation schemes made under section 22 of the 2009 Act. Each housing authority is required to make an allocation scheme specifying, among other things, the manner of, and the order of priority for, the allocation of dwellings to households and classes of households on the waiting list. Allocation schemes may also contain provisions for exceptional or emergency cases, allowing immediate housing outside of normal waiting list priorities, should circumstances warrant it.
A housing authority may provide short-term emergency housing to persons who are forced to leave their homes because of domestic violence, without having to assess their eligibility for social housing support or include them on the authority’s housing waiting list. Such support can be provided where victims of domestic violence meet the homeless definition set out in the Housing Act 1988, which is not prescriptive and in practice will generally include victims of domestic violence.
Where victims of domestic violence need continued State support to meet their housing needs, housing authorities work with all relevant service providers to ensure that a victim’s housing eligibility and need is assessed in a timely manner. This assessment is carried out in accordance with section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011.
Under the 2011 Regulations, a household may apply to the housing authority for the functional area where it normally resides, which would include a household residing in rented accommodation, or where it has a local connection. The 2011 Regulations do not refer to or prescribe a “Centre of Interest” requirement. In addition, applicants are required to provide certain information on their current and previous accommodation, including whether they reside in a refuge or other type of emergency accommodation and the reasons for leaving their previous accommodation.
My Department does not collate day-to-day information on the number of applications made to each local authority nor the specific contents thereof, and does not hold any information pertaining to the number of qualified households which left domestic violence situations or the priority assigned to this cohort.
In determining if a household has a local connection, the 2011 Regulations require a housing authority to have regard to whether a household member
- lived in the area for a continuous 5 year period at any time in the past;
- is employed in the area or within 15 km of the area;
- is in full-time education, or attending specialist medical care in the area;
- has a relative (as defined in the Regulations) living in the area for 2 years or longer.
In addition, a housing authority may decide, at its discretion, to consider an application from a household that does not meet the residence or local connection requirements.
In considering any application for social housing support, a housing authority may determine that a household has a housing need on the basis that their current accommodation is unsuitable, having regard to particular household circumstances or on exceptional medical or compassionate grounds. This allows a housing authority to consider a victim of domestic violence as having a housing need, and be placed on the housing list, subject to the household meeting all other eligibility criteria.
In the past there may have been difficulties for separated persons in accessing social housing supports where no deed of separation existed and no determination had been made as to future of the family home. In order to provide more flexibility to housing authorities to deal with cases where the ownership of the family home had not yet been finalised, the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 was amended in 2014 to allow authorities to provide such households with social housing support under the Rental Accommodation Scheme or the Housing Assistance Payment scheme until ownership of the family home is resolved in a formal separation or divorce settlement.
I am satisfied that housing authorities have sufficiently broad discretion, within the current framework, to deal with exceptional cases such as those where normal residence and local connection factors may need to be balanced against the needs of those that are either victims of domestic violence or are living under that threat.
