Dr. Tricia Keilthy:

I thank Deputy Joan Collins for raising the important issue regarding HAP. This is something we see regularly. The top-ups are causing great difficulty for households and the rent increases that are permitted are causing even more difficulty for them. It is important to recognise that we must ensure adequate homeless prevention measures are in place because at the moment, we do not spend nearly enough on homeless prevention but the cost of providing emergency accommodation for a family can be upwards of €35,000 every year. If that could be prevented by adjusting the HAP payment or the limits, as a homeless prevention measure it would save the State a significant amount in the longer term. There is a challenge between balancing the HAP limits with the potential impact on the private rented market in terms of inflating rents. In our view, there is a need to review how HAP interacts with the private rented market. We made a submission to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage regarding that. We compiled a detailed report with Threshold looking at HAP and how the limit on HAP impacts on low-income households. A number of proposals were put forward in terms of how we can address those. Rent certainty measures and rent caps need to be considered. We have seen what has been possible in the past year in terms of rent protections for tenants.

Another issue that we are very concerned about is that we are getting calls from people who are in receipt of HAP and are in arrears on the top-up. There is very little support for dealing with that, because if one falls behind on one's differential rent one could perhaps discuss it with the HAP section and renegotiate that but if one falls behind on the top-up, one is at risk of homelessness.

The protections that are in place for people impacted by Covid may not necessarily help these people. We have seen households whose income has not changed, who are on social welfare, but their household expenditure on basics such as food and utilities has increased. They are struggling even more to make those payments and they have fallen behind on their HAP top-up and now they could potentially be at risk of homelessness. We are very concerned about this issue and that is why we ask that the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage would work closely and set up a budget line to ensure that we can prevent those households becoming homeless by providing additional supports.