Pillar 5 of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is specifically focused on utilising existing housing stock, with a key objective of ensuring that the existing vacant housing stock throughout the country and across all forms of tenure, in both the public and private sectors, is used to the optimum degree. In this regard, action 5.1 of Rebuilding Ireland commits to the development of a national vacant housing reuse strategy, informed by Census 2016 data.
To this end, the Housing Agency established a working group comprising senior representatives from my Department, local authorities and from the Housing Agency itself to inform the strategy. My Department has received the output from the work of this group and is presently engaging with key Departments and agencies to consider the analysis and agree on the recommended actions prior to publication.
Ahead of finalisation of the strategy, it is important to note that my Department has already introduced a number of significant measures under pillar 5 of Rebuilding Ireland to incentivise the increased use of vacant housing stock to help meet the needs of those in receipt of social housing assistance. These initiatives include the Repair and Leasing Scheme, the Buy and Renew Scheme, and the Housing Agency Acquisitions Fund. My Department will continue to engage actively with local authorities, working together with the housing bodies, to maximise delivery from these schemes, particularly in respect of the repair and leasing scheme, and to progress the wider range of actions to be finalised as part of the broader vacant house reuse strategy.
I also announced, in August 2017, a number of key actions already being taken by my Department and local authorities to quickly progress the delivery of vacant homes back into use as soon as possible. These actions included the preparation of city action plans for the Dublin area and the four other main cities which are currently being developed with a view to being finalised and submitted to my Department as soon as possible, supporting these local authorities in bringing as many vacant properties as possible back into use expeditiously.
Also, the Housing Assistance Payment does facilitate inter-authority movement for persons qualified for social housing support. The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a flexible and immediate housing support that is available to all eligible households throughout the State. Under the HAP scheme, eligible households source their own accommodation in the private rented sector, which best suits their needs in their area of choice. The flexibility of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) as a social housing support is one of the scheme’s key characteristics and was one of the primary benefits envisaged at the outset of the scheme. Since April 2017, local authorities can facilitate incidences where a HAP applicant wishes to have their housing need met in a different local authority area. In cases where a household, currently on a local authority waiting list, for example in Dublin and wishes to access rented accommodation with HAP support in another local authority area, local authorities have been directed to provide that HAP tenants continue to be dealt with by their originating local authority. However, the rent limits will be those that apply in the local authority where the property is situated. The originating local authority will engage with the relevant new local authority to facilitate eligible requests for inter-authority movement under the HAP scheme. In order to maintain the equitable treatment of all housing applicants, inter-authority movement for HAP applicants is based on the current Social Housing Eligibility Income Bands, i.e. movement will only be facilitated across local authorities with Income Bands that are equal or higher; or where shared areas of choice are already operated. The current Social Housing Eligibility Income Bands are available on my Department's website at the following link:
http://www.housing.gov.ie/sites/default/files/migrated-files/en/Publications/DevelopmentandHousing/Housing/table_with_2016_income_limits.pdf.
Following the outcomes of the first phase of my review of Rebuilding Ireland, I announced a number of new measures and initiatives in relation to the delivery of social housing and, as part of Budget 2018, the funding for housing is being increased by 46% to €1.9bn next year to enable the social housing needs of 25,500 households to be met through measures including HAP, new builds, acquisition and leasing.
Arising from the recent Housing Summit, I announced that homeless families in Dublin wishing to move to locations outside Dublin will be facilitated where possible. My Department is currently working with local authorities to ensure that a
Place Finder Service is in place in each local authority to assist these homeless households who wish to relocate to access a suitable property, as well as providing them with advice and support in establishing their new lives in a different local authority area.
