HOMELESS CHARITIES WILL tell politicians today that the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) needs to be increased as renters continue to require to ‘top-up’ the payment as rents rise across the country.

Ahead of today’s Oireachtas Joint-Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is set to focus on the implementation of last year’s interim report on homelessness, the Simon Community will call for an increase in HAP payments.

The charity says such a measure is required due to rising rents across the country, saying that standard and discretionary HAP rates need to be locally re-assessed as a “matter of great urgency.

“The runaway inflation in the cost of housing has led to a situation in which individuals and families have little option but to “top-up” the HAP payment in order to secure a home,” the charity will tell the committee.

“This is increasingly unsustainable and the HAP rates and discretion of local authorities have to be addressed as a matter of great urgency.

“Current HAP rates do not adequately meet the levels of cost associated with private rental accommodation across the country, particularly outside of Dublin.” 

The Simon Community is also set to raise the impact of lifting the eviction moratorium in April 2021 on homeless levels, saying that evictions and homelessness rose in the second half of the year due to the moratorium being removed.

“Protective measures for renters implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic had a clear impact in reducing family homelessness,” the Simon Community will tell the committee.

Homeless figures in 2021 showed an overall increase compared to 2020, despite a small drop in December, with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage Assistant Secretary set to tell the committee that it remains a “serious concern” for the Department.

“The trend in 2021 was an overall increase on 2020 figures and this remains a serious concern for the Government and for my Department,” Caroline Timmons will tell the committee.

Emergency Accommodation

The continued pause of inspections on emergency accommodation centres is also set to be raised at the committee.

The Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) will tell the committee that they had begun a tender process to fill the inspector position, but that no suitable candidate was identified.

A second tender process is now underway.

Fire safety inspections, however, did take place throughout the pandemic at emergency accommodation, with Dublin Fire Brigade carrying out the inspections.

The DRHE will tell the committee that inspections and any works have been carried out.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) will be called on to carry out these inspections by the Simon Community.