JUST THREE FAMILIES in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) have been offered to social housing.

The scheme was introduced in 2015 in response to the escalating housing crisis and provides temporary accommodation for homeless families in privately provided rental properties.

However, Fianna Fáil’s Housing spokesperson Barry Cowen says the payment is “trapping” people in homelessness. While 810 families have moved to HAP-assisted tenancies, just three of those were through social housing.

“The HAP Scheme is fundamentally flawed in its design and requires urgent reform. Through design, homeless families who accept rental tenancy through the HAP Scheme are removed from the social housing waiting list. This forces families to choose between accepting unstable rental accommodation and forgoing their chances of securing a permanent home through social housing.”

Cowen said that the removal of people from social housing lists when they take HAP is holding some people back.

“The government claims that tenants under the HAP Scheme are not disadvantaged when it comes to social housing. This simply isn’t true when you consider the fact that those who accept HAP payments are removed from the social housing waiting list. The Government argues that these people are placed on housing “transfer lists” which also entitle them to social housing. However this assertion is demonstrably false.

“It was just another empty PR move on Fine Gael’s behalf. Unfortunately, this is one that has very damaging consequences for the 1,300 families with children who are currently homeless.”

In response, the Department of Housing said that HAP represented an important part of housing policy.

“The HAP scheme is one of the primary exit routes out of emergency accommodation and offers secure tenancies in the private rented sector. Local authorities were instructed to offer access to other forms of social housing to HAP households and local authorities are doing this.

“More than 350 HAP households have transferred to other forms of social housing support which would have involved in the order of over 1,000 offers of social housing being made to HAP households. It should be noted that an average of 30 homeless households are being housed through HAP every week in 2017.”

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