Housing Assistance Payment driving people to homelessness, charity warns
Focus Ireland event heard because Hap rents are not updated often enough, they fall behind market rents, meaning claimants often have to pay significant top-ups to rent their home. File picture: RollingNews.ie
The Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) is inadvertently leading people back into homelessness, as its rates are not keeping up with rent increases in the market, an event in Dublin has heard.
Furthermore, administrative and structural issues in the scheme mean people must make themselves homeless to qualify for a higher rate of support under Hap, Focus Ireland’s head of advice and information Conor Roe said.
“[The Hap scheme] was a good idea when first implemented,” Mr Roe said. “Unfortunately, society has changed and demographics have changed, which have shown shortcomings in the scheme.
First introduced in 2014, Hap sees households sourcing private rented accommodation but being eligible for the support whereby the local authority pays the landlord but the household pays a weekly rent contribution to the local authority.
Critics have said the limits in place for Hap have not kept pace with inflation, meaning those relying on Hap still cannot afford a property, while tenants are still at the whim of a landlord deciding they want to sell up or undertake substantial renovations.
Furthermore, those in receipt of Hap cannot stay on the regular social housing list for a more sustainable tenured home as, under the legislation, their “social housing need” is considered to have been met.
The scheme has cost over €3bn to date, with the spend rising significantly since the beginning — more than €500m was spent in 2023.
Speaking at the Focus Ireland event, UCD professor of social policy Michelle Norris said since Hap rents are not updated often enough, they fall behind market rents, meaning claimants often have to pay significant top-ups to rent their home.
She said this created a situation where Hap claimants must pay more than social housing tenants.
Prof Norris, who was also a member of the Housing Commission, which made high-level recommendations to Government for reform of the housing system, said: “It’s a very important part of the suite of supports available to Government. It plays an absolutely vital role.
“But in our view, it’s not a form of social housing. Hap doesn’t add to the supply of housing, and there is a lot of evidence that Hap underpins inflation in the private rental sector.”
The event also heard while structural reform was needed, one measure that could be acted on immediately was an increase of HAP limits, which would prevent many from losing their rented homes.
Mr Roe, meanwhile, listed several cases of households in receipt of Hap who currently find themselves facing into homelessness.
In one case, a tenant who has faced rent increases in line with what the landlord can legally do faces into homelessness as the inflexibility of the Hap limit means he cannot afford to meet the required rent.
However, if he were to become homeless tomorrow, he would be eligible for a higher rate of Hap that would have kept him in situ in that home in the first place.
“We can’t keep out the tide,” Mr Roe said.
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