Having regard to the Government’s commitment under the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, published in July 2016, the Housing Agency has established a one-stop-shop unit for the voluntary housing sector with the objective of better coordinating delivery of housing by this sector across all local authority areas. This unit will liaise closely with Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), my Department and local authorities.
The Action Plan emphasises the need to look at new ways of funding social housing delivery, in particular the need to provide structural, funding and policy supports to increase delivery of social housing by AHBs. In that context, it states that support will be provided to the Irish Council for Social Housing to develop a AHB sector-led new special purpose vehicle.
Funding for the Irish Council for Social Housing totalling some €49,000 to support this initiative was announced on 15 May 2017. The funding is being made available to the Council to establish a sector-led financial vehicle to allow AHBs to expand and to facilitate the delivery of additional housing units. This funding was approved under the AHB Innovation Fund and was part of a total of €104,043 that was allocated across a number of AHBs. The Innovation Fund was established, in line with the commitment made in Rebuilding Ireland, to provide AHBs with the means to test innovative ideas on new funding structures and to build capacity.
