Latest news with #HousingAssistancePayments
Irish Independent
a day ago
- General
- Irish Independent
Almost 900 applicants waiting for social housing in North Kerry
The district is comprised of Listowel, Lixnaw, Abbeydorney, Causeway, Ballyduff, Ballybunion, Ballylongford, Tarbert, Moyvane, Duagh and other areas. There are currently 870 applicants approved by Kerry County Council waiting for social housing in the region. This includes those who have selected the district as their primary area of choice and also applicants in other parts of Kerry who have indicated they may be interested in living in the region. The local authority has received 89 applications from people who have expressed an interest in an area within the district this year. A total of 74 of these applications have been approved. Of those approved applicants interested in living in Listowel Municipal District, 442 are waiting for a one-bedroom home. 254 have expressed interest in a two-bed home and 136 are awaiting a three-bed dwelling. Four-bed units are of interest to 31 applicants while seven applicants are awaiting a five-bed home. There are currently 1,246 tenancies across the available social housing schemes in the district. These schemes include Local Authority Housing, the Rental Accommodation Scheme, leasing and Housing Assistance Payments. A total of 25 tenancies in the area have begun in the Listowel district since the start of this year. The figures were included in a housing report discussed at the Listowel MD meeting for July.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
Number of rental properties accepting HAP drops by 22pc in three months
The number of available rental properties that accept Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) has dropped by 22pc in the second quarter of the year, a new report shows.
RTÉ News
09-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Plans for Galway local authority rent increases criticised
Galway City Councillors have roundly criticised plans to increase rents for over 2,500 local authority tenants. The proposals arise from a 'Differential Rent Review', which aims to generate an additional €1 million in revenue per annum. The proposals would entail a 3% increase in the proportion of assessable income, to be paid in rent, by those in social housing - going from 17% to 20%. In real terms, this amounts to a weekly rent rise in the region of 17.6%. The measures also include plans to abolish a €5 discount on rents for pensioners, those with children or people with a disability. The local authority's meeting heard the move was an executive function, as opposed to a decision that would be made by elected representatives. Effectively, this means councillors have no say on whether the decision will proceed. The meeting heard that €2.8 million is outstanding in rent arrears at present. Maintenance costs have doubled since 2019, and repair costs have surged for re-lets due in part to energy retrofitting obligations. The council's Chief Executive Leonard Cleary said the plan was difficult but necessary to address a significant gap in funding for housing. He said the revenue generated would go towards the maintenance of properties owned by the council. The increase will also apply to tenants in accommodation provided by approved housing bodies. Labour Councillor Niall McNelis described the proposed increase as "the third nail in the cross" for local authority tenants across the city. He said a number of people on Housing Assistance Payments were already making under-the-counter payments to secure their tenancies. He added that "the most vulnerable are the ones that are going to be hammered here". Social Democrats Councillor Eibhlín Seoighthe said she was taken aback by the proposal. She described the plan as "absolutely appalling", adding there was no cognizance of the societal impact it would have. She added it was "a huge burden to bear, which should be measured more clearly". Independent Councillor Mike Cubbard said some of the most vulnerable people in society were tenants of the local authority and that they needed to be protected. He said the proposal to remove a €5 discount for those eligible was the worst decision he has seen since being elected to the local authority in 2014. Labour's John McDonagh said the plan was like something from a Charles Dickens novel. Sinn Féin Councillor Aisling Burke asked the executive not to proceed with the move. She said people were already experiencing significant financial difficulties and that the increase in rents was unconscionable. Citing one of four case studies presented to councillors in which a tenant's rent would go from €51 to €71 per week, she said the scale of that increase was very difficult to comprehend. "You just cannot do it," she added. Fine Gael's Shane Forde said there had been years of under-investment in Co Galway, adding the council was now experiencing the full force of this. He pointed out that in recent months, councillors had approved increases to the Local Property Tax and commercial rates. He said he was sickened that elected representatives in Dáil Éireann "never wear the Galway jersey" but were happy to be on the airwaves discussing issues of national and international import. Fianna Fail's Michael Crowe said the examples presented to elected representatives appeared to show that those who were working would be most heavily penalised by the measures. No date has been given for the increase to take effect, but it will be in place by the end of this year or early in 2026. The Director of Services for Housing defended the proposals as "timely, proportionate, reasonable and needed". Elizabeth Fanning said rents had not increased since 2019, adding that a large proportion of those impacted would be able to afford the rise. She gave a commitment that the council would "100% work" to support vulnerable renters. She also pointed out that even after the increases were processed, tenants of local authority housing in the city would still be paying around seven times less in rent than those in private rental accommodation. A motion calling on the executive to abandon the 3% rent increase and instead proceed with a 1.5 % increase in January 2026, a similar hike in January 2028 as well as maintaining the €5 discount, was approved by all councillors. However, the motion is not binding on the decision made by the Council Executive. At the conclusion of more than an hour of discussions, the Council Chief Executive said he had noted the input of members and would reflect on their motions and feedback before making a final decision on the matter.
Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Irish Times
The homeless university lecturer: ‘There's a sense of shame around it'
'It's a very Irish thing that not owning your own house, especially at my age, there's a sense of shame around it,' says Jenny Roche. 'That's why I think our housing crisis is seemingly so insolvable because if shame wasn't as big a factor as it is, people would be shouting and screaming on the streets.' Roche, who has worked in Ireland and New York as an actor, director and screenwriter, including for RTÉ's Fair City, has become part of the State's hidden homeless, along with her son. Not reflected in the official homeless figures, which last month hit a new record of 15,378 people , the 58-year-old is staying with a friend, having been evicted after her former landlord decided to sell the home in which she lived for some 20 years. READ MORE Her 20-year-old son is also living with a friend and, for now, the pair are 'relying on the kindness of others', she says. The Irish Times reported earlier this month that Roche, who is a lecturer in film at the University of Galway, was ordered to vacate her rented property in Moycullen, Co Galway, having overheld for more than eight months. An initial Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) hearing ruled in the landlord's favour but gave Roche until May 31st to vacate the property, giving her time while her son is still attending college. However, she was 'stunned' to learn that her landlord appealed the decision, with an RTB tribunal overruling the previous order and giving the pair 28 days to vacate, meaning they had to leave two months earlier. Hoping the tenant-in-situ scheme would allow her to stay in her home, she spent nine months awaiting an offer to be made by her local council which was ultimately declined by her former landlord, who argued it was below market rate. 'I had to take time off work on sick, I'm on anti-depressants and I'm on sleeping pills for the last year. I haven't had mental health difficulties in my life, but this has been horrendous,' she says. Since receiving the notice of termination last year, Roche says she has tried 'every avenue possible', including searching for other properties to rent, but has found landlords stop replying once she mentions Housing Assistance Payments. 'Looking at the market rents, there's just no way. I earn about €1,900 a month and that's what rents are,' she says. Alongside pondering the purchase of a mobile home, she has also considered importing a modular home from Latvia which she hoped to install on her mother's land in Tuam, though she estimates the cost of doing so would amount to some €200,000, including various costs such as labour and materials. She has searched properties to purchase countrywide, but all fall outside of her price range, regardless of a loan from family, she says. 'Every avenue you go down, you have these fresh dawnings of hope, but you come across more barriers,' she adds. Over the years, Roche tried to secure a mortgage several times but was unsuccessful due to insufficient savings while renting. 'Unless I won the lotto, there's no prospect of me ever getting enough money to just buy a house,' she says. Her income while working as a freelance screenwriter for Fair City, in addition to lecturing, was above the threshold to qualify for social housing. She believes there is an environment of 'competitive suffering' for social housing, one in which those hoping to qualify must prove how 'worse off' they are. 'There's an awful lot of people caught in the gap between eligibility for social housing and eligibility for a mortgage,' she says. Once she stopped writing Fair City scripts, her income fell within the threshold for social housing, and she has been on the list for more than four years. Jenny Roche: 'I have a lot of family and friends, I'm not going to be stuck that I won't have a couch to sleep on, but that is what they're relying on.' Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy 'Galway City Council have been very nice, I have found them very sympathetic and very empathetic, but they're so overwhelmed,' she says, adding that council officials told her to stay out of official homeless services for as long as possible, as 'nothing is available'. 'I think what you're expected to feel, and it's very hard not to feel, is shame,' she says, believing renters in the Republic are 'second-class citizens' of sorts, something she feels 'viscerally'. 'There's so many like me,' she says. 'There's such unnecessary suffering, and around that, there's this really convenient complacency and ignorance. This is not like one or two people down on their luck, this is a consequence of political decisions over decades. 'I'm 58, I have a lot of family and friends, I'm not going to be stuck that I won't have a couch to sleep on, but that is what they're relying on, that a lot of people won't be stuck and that they won't want to talk about it,' she adds.
Irish Independent
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
No guarantees that Wexford families ineligible for housing scheme will receive offer of emergency accommodation
Following changes to the conditions of the tenant-in-situ scheme, previously eligible families across Co Wexford are now facing eviction and possible homelessness. The scheme, which allows county councils to buy rented properties from private landlords so that tenants can continue to live there, was altered at the beginning of the year with the criteria for eligibility tightened. As a result, many of those previously awaiting confirmation of their acceptance onto the scheme are now ineligible and no longer qualify for this support. And in a further blow, it has been confirmed that some of these families will not receive any support from Wexford County Council (WCC) if and when they are evicted. Speaking at the April meeting of the Rosslare Municipal District (RMD) Councillor Aoife Rose O'Brien said she had been 'devastated' to learn that the council will not even provide emergency accommodation for some of those no longer eligible for the tenant-in-situ scheme. 'I have contacted one of the council officials and was extremely disappointed with one of the answers to my questions; it was confirmed to me that only in some cases will an ineligible tenant receive an offer of emergency accommodation or be offered any further supports,' said the Sinn Féin councillor. 'These tenants have been in limbo for eight months now, in some cases they're still awaiting a response (to their tenant-in-situ applications) on whether they're eligible and the purchase will go ahead. I appreciate this is not the fault of the council, this is down to the exiting government, but we have to honour the people who were waiting, whose landlords had been told the tenant would be able to purchase further down the line. "They're facing eviction now, as a local authority we need to address this and find a proper solution for those families.' Housing officer Sharon Ryan said WCC tried to 'accommodate people who haven't been approved under tenant-in-situ scheme' and that anyone who is on the social housing list was eligible for supports like Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) or the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). 'I'm surprised you were told there would be no homeless services available,' she continued, 'the only instance I can think of (where this would happen) was if someone was in arrears. But even in those cases we would work with those people.' In an email seen by The Wexford People, a county council official responded to Cllr O'Brien's concerns regarding those now deemed ineligible for the tenant-in-situ scheme. "As in all cases where a household is facing homelessness, the Homeless Services and Support Unit will work with them to identify options and offer supports, which includes access to emergency accommodation in some cases,' the email reads. 'In cases where a household /property is not eligible for acquisition, we provide landlords alternative options for consideration including HAP and RAS. 'The households that are currently ineligible will likely not receive an offer of full social housing at this time due to many other households having longer time on the list.'
