A Tallaght councillor noted that young, vulnerable tenants were faced with eviction as they weren’t able to afford rent increases
The Homeless Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) payment is a scheme that offers financial support to individuals and families who are homeless or are at risk of being homeless.
“A young girl who has lived in our rental property since 2017 received a notice to quit due to arrears,” said Cllr Keane at a recent South Dublin County Council (SDCC) meeting.
“She currently receives a €990 HAP payment which hasn’t increased since 2017 despite her landlord raising the rent every year – she already works outdoors over 40 hours a week, and has found it financially hard to cope.”
In 2022, local authorities were allowed to increase HAP payments up to 35pc – it is up to each local authority to decide if this increase can apply to tenancies prior to 2022 on a case-to-case basis.
For people in the Dublin region who are at immediate risk of homelessness, a further 50pc discretion can be applied.
Cllr Keane’s motion said: “This council calls on the Minister for Housing to allow local authorities the discretion to agree to increase HAP payments for tenants to stay in their existing (pre-2022) accommodation, rather than face eviction from their rental property.”
The councillor said that the tenant, in Tallaght, was told that it was “not policy” to support the young tenant with a top-up.
“The tenant’s rent has increased for years but she’s still on the old homeless HAP rate. I rang the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DHRE) to explain the situation and I was told it was not policy to support her with a top-up,” said cllr Keane.
“But instead, this young girl was advised to leave the apartment she is in and be homeless again so she could be paid the higher rate of homeless HAP.”
A spokesperson from SDCC told the Irish Independent that the increase can apply to both new and existing tenancies.
“Local authorities were advised of an increase in the HAP discretion rate from 20pc to a maximum of 35pc for all local authority areas – this applies to both new and existing tenancies,” they said.
“Additional flexibility is permitted allowing local authorities to apply a couple rate to a single person household, where required, in recognition of the shared one-bed need. This applies to post-2022 tenancies only.
“SDCC strongly discourages any housing applicant intentionally making themselves homeless for any reason. Our HAP team are available to provide advice and support to applicants in relation to the scheme.”
Cllr Keane also noted that Tallaght does not have any housing available for single females in the area who are facing homelessness.
“Unfortunately, I sent a question to the council on behalf of another constituent and I was told there are no beds available for single females in the Tallaght area,” she said.
“So what are these tenants meant to do – it’s like we’re constantly fighting the government, we’re getting ridiculous replies from ministers and getting nowhere.”
Other councillors agreed to the motion calling for local authorities like SDCC to have a larger role in supporting such tenants.
“Tenants are being left to increase their own top-up to the landlord every single year without the HAP increasing,” Palmerstown-Fonthill councillor Madeleine Johansson said.
“Some landlords do increase rent by the maximum they can every single year, that adds up, especially now that rents are so high.
“It’s very unfair – the only way to get an increase is to change to a new property which makes no sense when what we’ve been trying to do is keep people in their homes instead of having more homeless families.”
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Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Thursday, October 30
In July, TD Paul Murphy raised the issue at a Dáil debate asking the Minister for Housing to ensure that the higher rates are made available to people so they do not have to “become homeless first” to access the higher rate.
“Recognising that newer tenancies are at a higher cost than those tenancies already in place, the measure only applied to new tenancies,” responded Minister for Housing James Browne.
“It is a matter for the local authority to determine if the application of the discretion is warranted on a case-by-case basis and also the level of additional discretion applied in each case.”
After the motion was passed, SDCC agreed to issue a letter to the Minister for Housing.
“The point I was trying to make was that this is one tenant I have dealt with but there are a lot of them out there – the government specifically needs to give the council more discretion, you can’t have a one-size-fits-all solution,” said cllr Keane.
“At a time when homelessness is at an all time high under the present government’s policies, why are we advising vulnerable tenants to be homelessness again instead of keeping them housed?”
A spokesperson from the Department of Housing said that they had recently approved a review of HAP rent limits.
“It is intended that the review will consider the existing rent limits with a view to providing sufficient support to assist eligible households to access and maintain tenancies,” they said.
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