A Dublin couple feel trapped within the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) as they’ve languished over 14 years on Dublin City Council’s housing list in unsuitable accommodation without receiving a single offer
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A frustrated Dublin couple has opened up about their wait of over 14 years on the housing list.
With three children crammed into one bedroom in Balgriffin, parents Ian and Stacey feel like they just can’t take it anymore and have spoken about “the absolute disregard for my family’s safety” at the hands of Dublin City Council. The couple feel their plight has been continually passed around from official to official, meaning that despite every day feeling like a struggle, they’re never deemed a high enough priority to receive a transfer to appropriate accommodation.
The lack of privacy is taking a massive toll on their teenage daughter, who is currently preparing for her Leaving Cert with nowhere to study. She is so embarrassed by the conditions that she refuses to let her friends visit, and was too mortified to allow photographs to be taken of her home.
But stepping inside the room, Dublin Live can confirm the reality is stark. The door opens directly onto a double bed and a baby’s cot, with no room left to move. They said they accept everyone must wait their turn on the housing list, and that one or two years would be understandable, but they’ve been in their current accommodation for the past seven and half years without receiving a single offer.
Ian is concerned about safety issues and potential fire hazards in a room that’s so overcrowded. Frustrated by the lack of space, Ian went looking for answers and confronted Dublin City Council with Section 63 of the Housing Act 1966, which states minimum free air space requirements per person in bedrooms, as well as rules around people over ten years old sharing a bedroom with someone of the opposite sex.
As Homeless HAP tenants, Ian and Stacey feel as if they have been punished for accepting an unsuitable living situation in the first place and feel trapped on a transfer list that moves at snail’s pace. Ian revealed they have moved just ten spaces on the list over the past four years, stating “I’ve gone from 56 to 46” and has catalogued their family’s case history through Freedom of Information requests.
People Before Profit Councillor Conor Reddy described Ian and Stacey’s situation as “such a familiar picture,” saying he’s consistently met with council tenants who are housed in smaller accommodation only to then feel trapped as their family grows. “Before you know it there are four or five children in a two bedroom house,” he said.
Cllr Reddy explained that this situation becomes even more precarious and uncertain for HAP tenants whose housing never feels totally secure. The HAP system is one in which both the couple and Cllr Reddy agree benefits private landlords more than tenants, who are often required to top up their rent directly to their landlords with supplemental payments.
With HAP tenants paying a top-up rent alongside their standard differential rent contribution, they are generally hit harder by the rent increases that were controversially introduced in April to cover a deficit in the council’s budget. Despite HAP tenants paying this extra charge, they will be excluded from the council’s housing maintenance plans.
This catch-22 of bureaucracy is exactly the kind of lose-lose situation that Ian and Stacey wish to highlight, as they say despite being deemed Band 1 priority within their list, they have been told the HAP transfer list is seldom reached as they are considered appropriately housed. “They tell me if I leave the property I will be taken off the list as it counts as making yourself homeless, yet they refuse to help,” Ian said.
When contacted for comment a spokesperson from Dublin City Council said that if a HAP tenant’s current home becomes overcrowded “they may request permission to transfer to another property once they have identified suitable alternative accommodation”. However, Ian and Stacey say the housing crisis is so bad they struggle to find anywhere affordable that meets their needs.
Instead, the couple continually try to secure a three-bed home under the Choice Based Lettings system, where instead of the council directly assigning properties, people can register their interest in certain homes. Ian said whenever they feel like they might secure accommodation in this manner it never comes to fruition and it simply “gives the illusion that you have a chance”.
Ian believes the process often bypasses families who have been long-term on the housing list to accommodate emergency homeless situations, but that this means their day may never come. “It’s going out to somebody who is going to bring the homeless figures down,” he said.
Cllr Reddy agreed with Ian’s frustration, describing the rollout of the HAP scheme as effectively being used by housing authorities as a “cynical accounting trick” to artificially slash the official waiting lists. “People who are in HAP and RAS properties are considered housed by local authorities,” he said.
He explained that systems like HAP make the housing situation in Dublin “look brighter than it actually is,” as it reduces housing waiting lists while increasing the transfer list all while taxpayers money is being given to private landlords. The 2025 budget allocated €482 million toward supporting HAP tenancies, which Cllr Reddy said could instead be used for long-term housing solutions and social home construction.
Cllr Reddy believes that a core issue is a fundamental lack of three and four-bedroom homes being built to address the sheer volume of larger families waiting on the housing list. He said that many of the newest housing schemes prioritise one and two-bedroom homes, which leaves families like Ian and Stacey’s without much hope.
“The council kind of determined that there was a need for one bedroom accommodation, which might be true in the overall numbers. But what those numbers don’t consider is how long people are waiting for three and four-bedroom homes. So even if there’s less people overall on the lists for three-and-four beds, quite often they’re the people that are on the list for 15, 16, 17, even 18 years,” he said.
A spokesperson for DCC said they “understand the frustration of families waiting for social housing” but that they “complete all allocations in line with the scheme of lettings”. “Applicants are placed in the band that reflects their housing need,” they said.
“The length of time an applicant waits for an offer will be determined by their position in a band, the number of properties directed towards that band, and by their choice of area and type of accommodation.”
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
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