Charities welcome government moves on Hap but say 'broken housing system' needs reform
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Housing charities have welcomed an announcement by the Minister for Housing of plans to allow higher Housing Assistance Payment rates, possibly by as early as next month, and that single people will be able to secure the higher Hap rate that currently applies to couples.
Minister Darragh O'Brien made the announcement at the international FEANTSA Conference in Croke Park, telling RTÉ afterwards that he hoped the changes would apply from next month. However, the exact detail has yet to be finalised, and it also appears that the proposed changes will not apply to the homeless Hap.
Currently, different local authorities offer Hap support at varying rates, in various categories from a single adult in shared accommodation to a couple or single adult with three children.
Speaking at this morning's FEANSTA conference, Minister O’Brien said he is working with Government colleagues and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to provide for an increase in the Hap discretion rate to 35% and to expand the couple’s rate to single persons.
A spokesperson for the department said: "The change to Hap discretion is on all tenancies - existing and future - and it's a matter for local authorities to determine what discretion they use."
It's also understood that the other change, in terms of treating single applicants as couples, will apply to future applicants, rather than retrospectively.
Each local authority has statutory discretion to agree to a Hap payment up to 20% above the prescribed maximum rent limit in circumstances where it is necessary due to local rental market conditions, to secure appropriate accommodation for a household that requires it.
It is a matter for the local authority to determine if the application of the flexibility is warranted on a case-by-case basis, while additional discretion of up to 50% above rent limits is available to assist in housing homeless households in the Dublin Region only.
At the conference, Minister O'Brien said: "I am working with my government colleagues to roll out an increase in the Hap discretion rate to 35% and expanding the couple’s rate to single persons. This will secure and expand more tenancies and is something I know many Irish delegates here today have been seeking.
"Housing For All sets us on a pathway to delivering 90,000 social homes between now and the end of 2030."
At the end of last year, more than 100,000 Hap tenancies had been set up since the scheme commenced, of which there were more than 61,900 households actively in receipt of Hap support and over 33,000 separate landlords and agents providing accommodation to households supported by the scheme.
Under Housing for All, an analytical exercise was carried out by the Housing Agency to examine whether an increase in the level of the 20% discretion available to local authorities under Hap is required, in order to maintain adequate levels of HAP support. That review has been submitted and is now being examined within the department.
Housing charities attending the conference, which is taking place at Croke Park, welcomed the moves. Threshold said that it welcomed the proposed changes, saying they were "significant" but added: "While all these reforms are welcome our housing system is fundamentally broken and requires fundamental reform."
While all theses reforms are welcome our housing system is fundamentally broken and requires fundamental reform #RightToHousing
— Threshold (@ThresholdIRE) June 3, 2022
Mike Allen, Head of Advocacy at Focus Ireland, also welcomed the change regarding single adult Hap recipients, saying it was "a good reform", but he said the discretionary aspect when it came to Hap would need to be monitored as to how it operated.
"What are the guidelines on which this discretion is applied?" he asked.
There is currently a chronic shortage of available tenancies around the country and Mr Allen said: "It will make a difference around the margins - but the private rental system at the moment is broken.
"It is an adjustment within a broken system to reduce the catastrophic impact on those at the margins."