Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
702. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will clarify the situation whereby a person living for longer than six months in a cost-rental apartment requires the housing assistance payment and thus must apply for the social housing waiting list. [40811/22]
View answerRather than being a social housing support, Cost Rental is a form of private tenancy and the target cohort is moderate-income households who face affordability challenges. The social housing sector already caters for a significant cohort of people and it is not intended that Cost Rental would overlap with, or replace, traditional social housing for low-income households, which remains a priority for the Government. By virtue of the fact that it has just been introduced in Ireland, Cost Rental is more limited in scale whilst as a new tenure option it represents a fundamentally different proposal to a social housing support.
Section 34 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021 specifies that Cost Rental tenants are entitled to avail of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP). This is if they experience a sudden fall in income, are within the Local Authority qualifying thresholds for social housing, and if they have been availing of a current Cost Rental tenancy agreement over a continuous period for more than 6 months. This provision was designed in order to differentiate social housing from Cost Rental at the outset of a tenancy given the different cohorts at which they are targeted, but not to impinge on a tenant's entitlement to apply for the relevant housing support should their circumstances change during their tenancy.
As such, while all Cost Rental tenants must be able to prove to the relevant landlord at the outset of their tenancy that they can afford to pay the cost rent, in the event that a Cost Rental tenant experiences a sudden and unexpected loss of income, such as job loss for example, the validity of a Cost Rental tenancy is not effected, and they are able to apply for any State housing supports for which they are eligible as a result of this change in their circumstances, such as HAP or Rent Supplement.
In order to qualify for HAP, a household must first be assessed as eligible for social housing support. Applications for social housing support are assessed by the relevant Local Authority, in accordance with the eligibility and need criteria set down in section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated Social Housing Assessment Regulations 2011, as amended. Any household assessed as eligible for social housing support is immediately eligible for HAP.
