Nearly 60,000 people received housing assistance payment last year

HAP, a form of social housing support provided by all local authorities, has become a lifeline for many during the housing crisis of recent years. Picture: PA

More than a fifth of new Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) households were referred from homeless services last year, with new data from the CSO also showing that 57,630 people were on the payment last year.

HAP, a form of social housing support provided by all local authorities, has become a lifeline for many during the housing crisis of recent years and the CSO report showed that as recently as 2015, some 5,570 households were availing of it. 

That number has soared and the report shows trends among those utilising it. There were more than 1,000 HAP households containing a single person with one child in each of Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin County, and Cork County in 2019.

The most common employment sectors for new entrants to HAP last year were wholesale and retail, accommodation and food, and health, while the median household earned income for HAP entrants in 2018 was highest in Meath (€18,606), Cork City (€17,597), and Fingal (€17,374), and lowest in Mayo (€7,842), Leitrim (€8,471), and Carlow (€8,796).

As to the percentage of rental properties used for HAP, the local authority with the highest percentage was Louth County Council (41.8% of properties), followed by Donegal County Council and Clare County Council. 

Dundalk South, followed by Drogheda Urban, were the two local electoral areas with the highest number of HAP properties. The lowest proportion of rental properties in HAP was in Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.

It also found that Dublin City, Fingal, Cork County, and South Dublin County had the largest numbers of new households in 2019 entering the HAP scheme. 

According to report: "Dublin City had 498 households with a single person and one child and 458 with a single person. Fingal had 325 households with a single person and one child entering HAP, with 267 in South Dublin County and 243 in Cork County."

The main household types entering a HAP tenancy in 2019 were a single person with one child (3,550) and a single person (3,180), while the proportion of new HAP households who have been referred from homeless services rose from 3.1% in 2014 to 21.1% by 2019.

A profile of HAP tenants by basis of need prior to their availing of the payment showed particular household circumstances was the main factor, while almost 40% of HAP tenants had a dependence on rent supplement as the primary basis of need. It showed 44% of HAP tenants had spent less than a year on the local authority housing waiting list before entering the scheme, while 12% had waited seven years.

According to the report: "Between 2015 and 2019, the number of households leaving HAP tenancies — and not returning — has gradually increased but is still a small proportion of all HAP households. The number of households who left a HAP tenancy rose from 230 in 2015 to 6,730 by 2019."

As for moving on from HAP, in 2015, the proportion of HAP tenants who left to enter social housing was 17.8% and this rose steadily to 35.0% by 2019. 

However, 15.5% of HAP tenants who left the scheme before 2019 were back on a local authority's housing waiting list last year.

The report also found that the median household earned income of HAP tenants in employment had risen by 18% two years after entering a HAP tenancy.

• cso.ie