QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the number of persons aged 18 to 24 years of age that are receiving housing supports in the form of a HAP and or RAS tenancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. REPLY The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) Scheme and the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) play a vital role in the provision of housing supports for eligible families and individuals. The HAP Shared Services Centre (SSC) provides a highly effective transactional service on behalf of all 31 local authorities, and hosts a national HAP tenancy database. Data provided by the SSC indicates that the number of active HAP tenancies where the primary applicant is aged between 18-24 is 2,877. My Department does not hold information on the age demographic of tenants accommodated under RAS.
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To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to strengthen the existing housing-led approach in Dublin and extend it to other urban areas focusing on persistent rough sleepers and long-term homeless households.
REPLY Housing First enables homeless individuals with high levels of complex needs to obtain permanent secure accommodation with the provision of intensive housing and health supports to help them maintain their tenancies. The National Implementation Plan for Housing First, published in September 2018, extends the delivery of Housing First nationally, with the introduction of targets for each local authority. The Plan includes an overall target of 663 tenancies in the period 2018-2021. The implementation of the Plan is a joint initiative of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Health, the HSE and the local authorities. In line with the National Implementation Plan, Housing First is being delivered on a regional basis by the local authorities and the HSE. A copy of the National Implementation Plan is available on my Department's website at the following link: ttps://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/homelessness/housing-first-national-implementation-plan-2018-2021. QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to strengthen the existing housing-led approach in Dublin and extend it to other urban areas focusing on persistent rough sleepers and long-term homeless households. REPLY Housing First enables homeless individuals with high levels of complex needs to obtain permanent secure accommodation with the provision of intensive housing and health supports to help them maintain their tenancies. The National Implementation Plan for Housing First, published in September 2018, extends the delivery of Housing First nationally, with the introduction of targets for each local authority. The Plan includes an overall target of 663 tenancies in the period 2018-2021. The implementation of the Plan is a joint initiative of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the Department of Health, the HSE and the local authorities. In line with the National Implementation Plan, Housing First is being delivered on a regional basis by the local authorities and the HSE. A copy of the National Implementation Plan is available on my Department's website at the following link: ttps://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/homelessness/housing-first-national-implementation-plan-2018-2021. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to enhance inter-agency arrangements to ensure that accommodation, welfare and health supports for prisoners are in place prior to their release. REPLY One of the commitments made in Rebuilding Ireland, Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is that the State will enhance inter-agency arrangements to ensure that accommodation, welfare and health supports for prisoners are in place prior to their release. An inter-agency protocol, developed by the Irish Prison Service in consultation with the Health Service Executive, Department of Employment and Social Protection and the City and County Managers Association, is now in place. Under Rebuilding Ireland, the Irish Prison Service funds the Irish Association for Social Integration Opportunities to provide 11 Resettlement Coordinators in its closed prisons. Resettlement Officers liaise with single-points-of-contact in local authorities in advancing applications for housing supports. The Implementation Plan for Housing First, published in September 2018, is delivering permanent housing solutions with appropriate wrap around supports for rough sleepers and long-term users of emergency accommodation. A dedicated Housing First stream is in place for prisoners and other persons convicted before the courts with high support needs who would otherwise be homeless on release from custody. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the homes brought into use under the repair and leasing scheme; the number of applications and overall expenditure with regard to same by year and local authority; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY The Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) was developed to assist private property owners and local authorities or approved housing bodies (AHBs) to harness the accommodation potential that exists in certain vacant dwellings across Ireland. RLS has both capital and current funding streams. The capital element funds the repairs to the property; the current element funds the lease payment to the property owner with the cost of the repairs being recovered from the property owner by offsetting it against the lease payment - annual payments include the ongoing cost of lease payments and costs of new properties brought into the scheme over the course of the year. At the end of Q2 2019, a total of 1,459 applications for the Repair and Leasing Scheme (RLS) had been received from property owners; 113 homes had been brought back into use and were tenanted; and 149 agreements for lease had been signed. These statistics as well as year-end current and capital spends, broken down by LA, can be found at on the Departments website at the link below; http://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/social-housing/social-and-affordble/overall-social-housing-provision. Statistics for Q3 2019 are currently being collated and will be published shortly on the Departments website. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to review the disparate systems of differential rents for social housing across local authorities.
REPLY Section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides for the introduction of a national rents framework for social housing tenants. Considerable work has been carried out by my Department in developing a draft of such a framework, which has as its main aim the harmonisation of local authority rents, including a set of standardised income disregards, whilst retaining the general principle of rents related to household income. This work was examined further in the light of the broader commitment given in the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, to review the disparate systems of differential rent for social housing in place across local authorities. The overall objective is to ensure that housing supports are fair and sustainable and prioritise those on lowest incomes. I intend to bring a comprehensive package of social housing reform measures to Government in the near future and the relevant recommendations made in the review will be progressed as part of this package. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government when guidelines for cost-effective analysis documents for local authorities will be launched; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY My Department has for some time, provided guidance to local authorities when they are undertaking cost effectiveness analyses in respect of high value publicly-funded social housing projects. The local authorities' responsibility in this regard, arises from their role as Sponsoring Agencies for such projects which, under the Public Spending Code, means they have primary responsibility for evaluating, planning and managing their public investment projects. To provide a greater level of support for the local authorities, my Department has formalised the guidance we provide and recently provided final draft guidance documents to the local authorities. We are seeking observations from the local authorities regarding this comprehensive guidance. While adjustments may be made based on that feedback, the local authorities in the meantime, are continuing to use the guidance for any of their projects that require a cost effectiveness analysis, which support has been available to them for some time. The final draft guidance documents we have shared with the local authorities include 'Draft Sectoral Guidance for Social Housing Appraisals' and 'Worked Examples of Preliminary Appraisal & Detailed Appraisals'. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to establish bodies such as approved housing bodies in the higher education institutions sector to access Housing Finance Agency funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY Rebuilding Ireland provides for the establishment of dedicated delivery structures, such as Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) in the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) sector to access Housing Finance Agency (HFA) funding. The HFA held bilateral meetings with each of the seven Universities to introduce the HFA and to assess potential demand and timelines to delivery. During the meetings, the HFA outlined the choice available to the HEIs to either: a) establish AHBs to access finance from the HFA or b) to borrow directly from the HFA. The HFA provided the Universities with information on the procedures to establish a new AHB. Feedback suggested that the HEI preference was to borrow directly from the HFA once the necessary Commencement Order had been passed. This is considered to be a more straightforward approach. Section 51 of the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016 then amended the Housing Finance Agency Act 1981 to enable the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) to lend to Institutes of Higher Education for the provision or management of student accommodation, including the acquisition of land for this purpose. This provision became operational on 3 July 2017. Long term finance at very competitive fixed or variable rates is now available for HEIs from the Housing Finance Agency. As outlined in the HFA Annual Report 2018, three universities have had loan applications approved totalling €167m for the provision of 1,428 new student bedrooms. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of plans to put in place one stop shop assessment centres with multi-agency participation making the best use of modern technology for families presenting as homeless.
REPLY My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility for the provision of accommodation and related services rests with individual housing authorities. Decisions on the range of accommodation and support services to be provided are a matter for the individual housing authorities in consultation with the statutory Management Group of the relevant regional joint Homelessness Consultative Forum. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness includes a range of measures to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness. One measure is to ensure that ‘one-stop-shop’ assessment centres are put in place with multi-agency participation making the best use of modern technology for families presenting as homeless. The objective of such centres is to ensure assessment and supports are provided to families with children presenting as homeless to ensure every effort is made to keep them in their current homes or to ensure appropriate homeless and other support services are provided. In Dublin, where the issue of homelessness is most pronounced, a ‘one-stop-shop’ assessment centre is in place for families presenting as homeless. The centre is led by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) and has multi-agency participation including the four Dublin housing authorities, Tusla, the Family Mediation Services, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, the Department of Justice and Equality, tenancy protection services and expert NGOs. The services concerned work together to assess and support families with children presenting as homeless, to ensure every effort is made to keep them in their current homes or to ensure appropriate homeless and other support services are provided. In addition, Housing Support Officers, working out of the centre, are assigned to individual families in emergency accommodation, to assist and support families to move on to long-term tenancies. Similar assessment and support services are also in place across all housing authorities and local authorities work closely with other Government Departments and Agencies to ensure that the households and families experiencing homelessness receive the supports that they require. To ask the Minister for Housing; Planning and Local Government the status of acquisitions by the Housing Agency under funding to find and acquire suitable portfolios of vacant properties per annum.
REPLY A key priority in the Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness is to provide direct capital funding to the Housing Agency to facilitate the acquisition of suitable portfolios of properties for social housing from financial institutions and investors (Actions 1.1, 2.5 and 5.6). An acquisitions fund of €70 million, which is a revolving fund, was established with effect from 1 January 2017 with the objective of acquiring some 1,600 units over the period to 2020 for social housing use. This has enabled the Housing Agency to actively engage with banks and investment companies in relation to the acquisitions of properties. The fund is replenished by the Agency through the sale of units primarily to the Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector and the funds received will then be recycled back into the fund for future acquisitions. This is intended to be a short term to medium term initiative, targeting the vacant property portfolios of financial institutions and investment companies and is a direct response to the current shortage that would be designed to complement, not displace, ongoing targeted acquisition activity by local authorities and AHBs. Through the provision of direct access to capital funding for the Housing Agency, the aim is to simplify the current acquisition process for vacant portfolio purchases; speed up the process and to encourage investors to make additional supply available. Up to end Q2 2019, a total of 645 properties had been purchased by the Agency using the Fund and placed on caretaker leases. In addition, a further 63 properties are in the process of proceeding to purchase close or being placed on caretaker leases or transferred to Local Authorities, which is close to 50% of its original objective of the Fund. The onward sale of 322 of these units to AHBs has been completed in full. The year by year breakdown as reported for Rebuilding Ireland is as follows: Year No. of units made available to AHBs 2017 36 2018 481 2019 (up to end Q2) 128 In addition to the above, and in order to maximise the number of vacant properties held by financial institutions that could be harnessed for social housing, the Housing Agency is separately engaging on an agent basis with financial institutions and local authorities. To end Q2 2019 a total of 283 properties have been bought directly by local authorities from these institutions, with a further 146 proceeding through to sale. This effectively means that in total, more than 1,000 properties held by financial institutions have been brought back into use for social housing since 2016 as a result of the intervention of the Housing Agency more generally. |
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All Parliamentary Questions I make about Housing, Planning and Local Government and their answers can be viewed in this section Archives
December 2019
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