Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 May 2022
60. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will urgently review the housing assistance payment limits for social housing which are hopelessly inadequate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22195/22]
View answerAcross all the area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and in much of Dublin, the HAP limits that people have available to them if they are looking for rental property are not even at the races in terms of the levels of rent. One will not find a two-bedroom apartment for less than €2,000 per month and more often it is €2,200 per month. Something has to be done. Otherwise people looking for rental property or facing homelessness are absolutely banjaxed. What will the Minister do?
As Deputy Boyd Barrett knows, HAP supports approximately 61,900 households in this country. We had a debate last night about rents and one matter that I was not able to put on the record then was the fact that the Government provides nearly €1 billion in direct rental support to families, and rightly so. Approximately €585 million goes to HAP. Sometimes that is forgotten and others try to paint it as some type of subsidy to the private landlord sector. It is not. The payments are supports that go to real families.
I acknowledge the Deputy's question and I will give him an update on the current position. There is no question but that there are pressures due to rising rents. We have introduced the 2% rent cap and that is taking effect. That aside, we commit to ensuring that HAP levels are adequate to support vulnerable households while we increase the supply of social housing. I want to see people exiting HAP and going into permanent homes. There were approximately 4,300 exits from HAP into other social houses in 2021, which is good. We are seeing a substantial reduction in the number of increases within the HAP. Fundamentally, there is a top-up payment of 20% above the maximum limits and up to 50% in the Dublin region for those households either in or in immediate risk of homelessness.
However, under Housing for All we have committed to undertake an analytical exercise to examine whether an increase in the level of the 20% discretion available to all local authorities and the discretion in the four Dublin local authorities is required to maintain adequate support for families. The Housing Agency was undertaking this work and has completed it. The review has been submitted and it is with my Department at present. I expect to receive the recommendations following the analysis of the Housing Agency's work by the Department. That will conclude shortly and I will be engaging with the Oireachtas joint committee through its Chairman, Deputy Matthews, and members of the committee. That work is nearing conclusion.
I fully recognise that the increases in rent and the HAP limits pose problems, and particularly acutely in the Deputy's area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. We want to help not just by increasing the HAP, which I am open to doing based on the analytical data that come through, but also by providing permanent homes for people. To reiterate, there was a significant number of exits, 4,587, from HAP into other social houses in 2021.
In the long run or even in the medium term, I am not in favour of pouring huge amounts of money into rent support, but I accept that for now, until we address the social housing deficit, we must do it. We have to give people options. However, this is a matter of urgency. I am not exaggerating. Everybody who is approaching me, and the number has been increasing over the last few months, are doing so often because they are being evicted from HAP tenancies. By the way, I appeal to the Minister on that ground. If people are being evicted from HAP tenancies on grounds of sale, the local authorities should just buy those properties straight away. Why would they not? If they are for sale and one can prevent people being made homeless, just buy them so we do not have the same people knocking on the council's door and saying they are homeless.
In the meantime, there is a massive gap between the HAP limits and the actual rents. The HAP increases must be introduced as a matter of urgency. Otherwise the numbers going into homeless accommodation are going to increase. Even the place finder service is sending people out to look at places which the HAP limits would not allow them to view. It is ridiculous at this point. They have to be increased as a matter of urgency. Otherwise people who are looking for a rental property and do not have a roof over their heads or are facing eviction are in really deep trouble.
I recognise the issue. I represent Dublin Fingal and I meet people and talk to tenants all the time. It is difficult. We are making progress in that regard by increasing the supply of permanent homes. That is very important because we need a supply-led and housing-led response to homelessness.
To answer the Deputy's question specifically, I am treating this as a matter of urgency. I required the Housing Agency to do a piece of work, and the Deputy would expect me to do that, so that what we do is based on sound analytical evidence. As I said in response to earlier questions, I have told all local authorities by way of a circular that they can acquire homes to prevent people going into homelessness, particularly where there are HAP and RAS tenancies. All 31 local authorities, including Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, know that because the circular has been issued, and I encourage local authorities to do so. We are providing the finance for that to happen. That acquisition with the tenant in situ is available now.
I will keep the Deputy informed and up to date with regard to the review and when we are bringing forward any changes to HAP. I want to do that as quickly as possible, but it must be based on sound evidence. I will do that. I recognise the Deputy's genuine concerns in this regard and I thank him for tabling the question.
The substantial issue, of course, is that we need more social housing stock. By the way, and we will discuss this later, we should be looking for purchases in excess of 10% in private developments as well, given the situation we are now facing and to increase the options for people. Apart from that, I should also mention the income thresholds, because I probably will not get a chance to mention this anywhere else. The Minister could respond on that. Seriously, there are many people who are caught in limbo. They are just over the threshold and as a result cannot even get HAP support, never mind get a council house. Something has to be done about that as a matter of urgency. These people are caught. I am aware of one woman who has been in emergency accommodation for three and a half years. She is working in a State agency and now she is not entitled to housing support, but her income would not get anywhere near the local rents. We need to look at the things that are happening to people and tailor the policy to that.
I will let Deputies Ó Murchú and Ó Broin ask two brief supplementary questions on this.
I reiterate that action must be taken on the issue that one cannot get payment plans while in a HAP tenancy. That is a definite difficulty that will lead to homelessness. Beyond that, there is an issue I brought up with the Minister previously. We have to look at the means assessment being carried out now for over a year in respect of getting onto the housing list. It is leading to people not getting on the list, having severe difficulties and even some people not getting houses. We must look at the means by which we are doing that. The way it was done previously, by taking a four-week period of wages, meant one was not thrown by certain anomalies that can occur over a 12-month period.
I thank the Chair for his indulgence. I am looking at the circular again. One of the conditions is where the property is one of the priority categories in Circular 02/2022, which was one-bedroom and four-bedroom properties or properties for disability adaptations. Does that mean two-bedroom or three-bedroom properties would be excluded under the revised circular? Clarification would be helpful. The circular also states that proposals for acquisition by approved housing bodies should continue to be submitted to the capital advance leasing facility, CALF, team in the Department in the normal manner.
Does this mean a CALF acquisition might provide a solution where a local authority acquisition would not meet the criteria as the Minister has set out? Is this something we should be exploring?
Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned social housing limits earlier. In response to other questions we said the work is nearing conclusion. I received a submission and sought further changes to it. It has gone back to the officials and we will have it very shortly. This is with regard to social housing limits throughout the country. A very important measure the Government has brought forward is a new form of tenure in cost rental. This is also in the Deputy's constituency. We have seen the first tenants in place paying approximately 50% of market rent. The tenancies in the development are secure as they are for 70 years. There are also many others. We have hundreds of cost rental tenancies. I want to see it expanded to thousands of tenancies. People over the social housing limits can get State-backed secure affordable tenancies. This is happening with cost rental. We are reviewing it and I am close to concluding it with regard to the social housing limits.
On purchase and tenant in situ I want to say very clearly that one-bed accommodation is something we are acutely aware of. We all know the predominance of single people in our homeless numbers. We need to focus on this. We also need to focus on larger families and four-bed accommodation. This does not exclude two-bed and three-bed accommodation. Approved housing bodies are referenced in it by way of accessing CALF finance where they see opportunities that may be there. It may make more sense for an approved housing body to do this in an area and if so we will do that.
Part V was increased in the Affordable Housing Act. I know the Deputy had issues with it and that is fine but we have 10% social accommodation and 10% affordable accommodation in new tenancies. We need to increase the supply and we are doing so. We are reviewing it and nearing a conclusion. We are not just reviewing it as we are looking at changes to social housing limits and how they will fit in with affordable and cost rental accommodation. This is important. We need more and more families in affordable cost rental accommodation and affordable purchase accommodation.
