According to a new report by the homeless charity the Simon Community, there are no HAP properties available to rent in numerous areas around Ireland.
HAP – Housing Assistant Payment – is a social housing support scheme provided by all local authorities in Ireland. In effect, councils provide monthly payments to landlords to help those tenants who are struggling to pay their rent.
However, according to the charity’s Locked Out report, which is published quarterly, in 11 of the 16 areas studied there were no properties available to rent through HAP.
These areas include Athlone, Cork City Centre, Cork City Suburbs, Galway City Suburbs, Galway City Centre, Co. Leitrim, Limerick City Suburbs, Limerick City Centre, Sligo Town, Portlaoise, and Waterford City Centre.
During the three days examined, the study found that 70.2% of all properties available to rent nationwide (472 properties total) were in Dublin.
Furthermore, the research found that the total number of properties available to rent in Ireland noticeably fell between December 2022 and March of 2023.
At the end of last year, there were 757 properties available to rent within the 16 study areas. This has since fallen to 672 – a drop of 11.2%.
“For the second time since this the publication of this report, there were no properties available within a standard HAP rate across the four household types,” the report reads.
“29 properties were found within a discretionary HAP rate. This is the lowest number of HAP properties recorded by the Locked Out of the Market series.”
Ireland’s number of people in homeless accommodation hit a new record high for the seventh consecutive month in a row in February of this year.
Homelessness Crisis: There are now 3,431 children in emergency accommodation, new figures show https://t.co/tnLhIDCghQ
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) February 24, 2023