THERE ARE A record low number of houses available to rent for people accessing the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), according to the latest report by the Simon Community.
The Simon Communities Locked Out of the Market report for September, which examines 16 areas around the country, found that there were only 35 HAP properties available to rent last month.
This is the lowest ever figure recorded by the Simon Community, with all 35 HAP properties falling within the higher discretionary rates while none were available under standard HAP rates.
It is a massive drop compared to September 2021, when there were 192 HAP properties available.
Of the 35 HAP properties, 23 were available within Dublin city, while there were none available in nine of the 16 areas examined.
These areas were:
For single persons and couples, there were 11 properties available under the discretionary rate, with only one available in both Kildare and Cork, while the remaining nine were in Dublin.
For a couple or a lone parent with a child, there were 13 properties available under discretionary rates. Of these, six were outside Dublin.
For a couple/one parent and two children, there were 24 properties available, with 13 of these overlapping with homes available to one-child families.
The report also found that there was a record low 392 available properties to rent at any price across the 16 areas, which is down 61% compared to September 2021, when there were 1,017 properties available.
Wayne Stanley, the head of Policy and Communications at the Simon Communities of Ireland said:
“If you break down the 35 properties available, if local authorities apply the maximum discretions available to them and put it in the context of the housing and homelessness crisis, in reality no properties are available to those trying to access privately rented homes to exit or avoid homelessness.
“In this context, the moratorium on evictions being considered by Government at the moment, is an imperative. However, it is not in itself an answer to the crisis. We need action that will increase the stock of affordable homes.”
Stanley called on the Government to act on both vacancy and engage with landlords who are seeking to leave the rental market to retain the current stock of rental properties.
It comes as the Department of Housing recorded a record 10,805 people accessing emergency accommodation in August, which surpassed the previous record set in July.
August is the eighth consecutive month where the number of people accessing emergency accommodation has risen.
In total, there were 7,585 adults who accessed emergency accommodation in the last week of August. Of those, 4,854 were male and 2,731 were female
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