Dáil debates

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions

Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility

9:45 am

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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3. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will raise the rent caps for rent allowance to reflect the rapid rise in rents in many areas across the country to address the problem of landlords refusing to accept rent allowance; her views on whether these caps are now contributing to a growing homelessness crisis; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10610/14]

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that the current rent supplement thresholds for Dublin city and county are totally unrealistic and is resulting in increased in homelessness in the city including a high level of families and will increase the threshold pending the long-awaited housing assistance payment. [11006/14]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Two years ago I informed the Minister that her decision to cut the cap on rent allowance, combined with the policy of landlords of refusing to accept rent allowance, would lead to homelessness. She responded by promising that would not be the case. I propose to introduce several people in the Visitors Gallery who are either homeless, about to become homeless or have been made homeless in the past year or two as a direct result of the current caps on rent allowance and the policy of landlords of refusing to accept rent allowance. As a result of these factors, they simply cannot get homes. I will provide further details. Will the Minister tell our visitors what they are supposed to do?

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 5 together.

There are approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided more than €344 million in 2014. While the Deputy may find it difficult to accept, there are clearly many tens of thousands of people in receipt of rent supplement. Following an extensive review of the private rental market, revised maximum rent limits were introduced from Monday, 17 June 2013 until 31 December 2014. The purpose of the review is to ensure the availability of accommodation for rent supplement tenancies, not to provide access to all housing in all areas - a point the Deputy raised on previous occasions - while ensuring maximum value for money is achieved. Despite the overall pressures on the social protection budget, there have been increases in the rent allowed in Dublin, Galway, north County Kildare and Bray.

I am aware of the difficulties facing people in sourcing accommodation and the latest Daft.ie rental report indicates that the number of advertised rental units in Dublin had declined from 6,700 in 2009 to fewer than 1,500 at the end of 2013. The report also states rent levels are static in areas outside Dublin, including Cork, Galway and Limerick cities. All prospective tenants, including those seeking to access rent supplement, are finding it increasingly difficult to secure appropriate accommodation owing to the reduced availability of rental properties, particularly in Dublin. Increasing the maximum rent limits for rent supplement will not resolve this difficulty owing to the reduced level of supply and would result in further increases in rental costs for all persons renting, including those who are working and students.

That approximately 78,000 people are in receipt of rent supplement, of whom almost 30,000 are in the Dublin area, shows a significant number of landlords are accommodating applicants under the scheme. The Department continues to monitor trends in the private rental market to determine the impact on rent supplement recipients. Departmental officials administering the rent supplement scheme have considerable experience in dealing with customers under the scheme and will continue to make every effort to ensure their accommodation needs are met and that the residence is reasonably suited to their residential and other needs.

Under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, responsibility for recipients of rent supplement with a long-term housing need will transfer from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities. Officials in the Department are working closely with those in the lead Department, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to pilot the HAP scheme in the Limerick local authority by the end of March, with further roll-out to selected local authorities later in the year.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is all very interesting, but it makes not a whit of difference to the people in the Visitors Gallery. Charlene is living in Citywest and must drag her five children across town to school in Shankill every day. She has been in and out of homeless accommodation for two years. Ilona and Donatus will be evicted in the next few days and have to move to homeless accommodation. I have been in contact with the Department about the case for three weeks as it will not vary the rent cap by approximately €100. Noeleen was made homeless because her landlord increased her rent and had to move into homeless accommodation. She is now living in dilapidated, substandard accommodation under the rental accommodation scheme. Peter who has mental health problems has been in a homeless hostel for three years. Kirin, an elderly woman, has been in a homeless hostel in Dún Laoghaire for several years and cannot find a rental property anywhere.

The Minister indicated that 1,500 rental properties were available in 2013. Does she know how many of them fitted the criteria of being available to people on rent allowance or falling under the cap set by the Department? I bet she does not know that only nine of the 1,500 properties fitted her Department's criteria in the whole of 2013. What is everybody else supposed to do? People are being made homeless. I beg the Minister to do something for the individuals in the Visitors Gallery and the large number of people who are arriving in tears and desperate at politicians' clinics with their children because they do not want to end up in homeless hostels on the other side of the city or on the street.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I do not want to comment on individuals' circumstances because people are entitled to their privacy. The Deputy may speak about people in the tones he has just used, but it is not wise of him to make throwaway remarks on the floor of the House about their personal circumstances. I will not comment, except to state I do not understand, in the case of two of the people who the Deputy has indicated have been homeless for more than three years, the reason he has not been working with the relevant local authority - I presume Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council of which he was once a member - to ensure the individuals in question secure permanent accommodation under the schemes that have been developed nationwide. Is he suggesting he has in mind a particular type of accommodation that only he will authorise, rather than the various housing organisations which are providing accommodation, particularly for individuals who have been homeless for a long period? I am at a loss as to the reason he has not worked with the local authorities to seek to help people. While I understand he wishes to make big statements in the House, I would prefer if he worked with the local authority to help the individuals in question. It must be distressing to have one's personal circumstances outlined in the Chamber in the manner the Deputy has just done, without regard for privacy.

9:55 am

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister's response to Deputy Boyd Barrett is disingenuous in the extreme. To ask any Deputy from Dublin to go and work with the local authority is an absolute failure to understand that the local authorities in this city cannot cope with the problem that is being created by underfunding and under-investment in social housing. Deputy Boyd Barrett quoted figures. I will quote one that I have looked at for the last number of weeks. We are talking about families who are being made homeless, who are being put into homeless accommodation or who are being split up across relatives because landlords have sold on houses or properties are unsuitable. How many three-bedroom family properties are available in Dublin 8, 10 and 12 to those on rent allowance? There is only one, and it is student accommodation, which is absolutely useless to anybody with a family. In that area, there is none.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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That is the area I represent and I guarantee that every other Deputy in the House can say the same.

Waiting for three years for a pilot scheme down in Limerick is not good enough and does not address the housing crisis in Dublin. This is a crisis and I am asking the Minister if she has had emergency meetings with her colleague Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing. Will she look at increasing the cap for rent allowance as a temporary measure? That is very specific. It will not address the problem for everybody, though, as there is not enough availability.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I ask Members to please observe the time limits on these questions.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I appreciate the Deputy's remarks. This is something we have discussed over a number of years. We have a problem in that a number of years ago we were building as many as 90,000 units, many of which were in the wrong places. That level fell dramatically after the crash. The critical way to resolve this crisis is for the construction industry, in particular, to return a rate of house building of 25,000 to 30,000 units a year, rising to twice that. We all know people who are having enormous difficulties at the moment. We also have a situation whereby when someone leaves a lovely home and moves to smaller accommodation when they are retired or widowed, the local authority pulls the house apart and puts up steel shutters. There it then sits. We are actually losing supply through the actions of some local authorities. I am more familiar with my own local authority in Fingal and Deputy Ó Snodaigh's in the city than I am with Deputy Boyd Barrett's. It is an issue of supply, however, and that issue will only be solved by getting the construction industry working again and developing public housing programmes through housing associations and local authorities. We are agreed on that as the ultimate response. Driving rents up is not necessarily the proper response.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have permission from every one of these people to raise their cases. They asked me to do so. They are from Dún Laoghaire but also from Wicklow and Dublin city centre. That is how desperate people are. We have gone everywhere and they have gone everywhere, including Threshold, Focus, the local authority and welfare sections, but there are no council houses. Maura, who is in the Visitors' Gallery, has been on a housing list for 14 years and was told recently by the local authority that it would be three more years before she is housed. That is 17 years. Ilona and Donatus are facing eviction next week because the community welfare officer will not vary the cap by €100. Charlene is in a hotel with five children and does not even know if she will have that hotel room tomorrow. She could be sleeping in a car, and she has to bring those five children across to Shankill. How would the Minister feel if she were in that situation? I know that if it were me, I would not give a damn about reviews, meetings and discussions that have been going on for years or plans to get the construction industry going. I would just ask the person who has the power to do it to ring up community welfare officers and tell them to vary the caps to enable people to get a place to rent. Then, yes, let us have the social housing. We cannot wait for that now, however. We need emergency action to prevent people from being driven into homelessness. I beg the Minister to do this.

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is not responsible for housing, but I asked her if she has had or will have continuous crisis meetings to address this issue. A pilot scheme in Limerick does not address it. The plan to get the construction industry going will not address it in the short term. It will take at least five years if the Government puts the money into local authorities, which it is not doing. The Minister mentioned boarding up of houses. Local authorities have not been given the money to put those properties into the condition required. Dublin City Council has a whole range of bedsits, which are now illegal under EU legislation. The council needs the money to change them.

I have asked, as a stopgap measure, that the Minister consider the threshold. I am not and have never been in favour of subsidising private landlords. I have always argued that the money should be going into social housing directly through the local authorities. It is a stopgap measure to help some families in this city in particular - I presume it is the same in some of the other cities - where matters are now at crisis point. I ask the Minister to take emergency action.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett referred again to the fact that this is an issue around supply. During the boom we built too many houses, a huge number of which were in the wrong areas. Dublin now has a recovering economy with many people returning to work and many workers and students renting privately in the region. It is a major centre for students - the biggest in the country. Without a doubt, the problem is supply. I reiterate to Deputy Boyd Barrett what I have just said to Deputy Ó Snodaigh. The way to approach this issue is to increase the supply of houses.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Sure, but in the meantime-----

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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To answer Deputy Ó Snodaigh, the Government has undertaken a series of innovative approaches to increasing supply. We are talking about a shortage of supply, but Deputies are simply saying that the short-term solution is to increase rents to private landlords. What will be the effect for all of the people at work, many of whom are on low incomes?

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It puts a roof over their heads.

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Their rents will be increased by the State arbitrarily as a major player in the market. If Deputy Boyd Barrett wants to solve the problem, I invite him to sit down and work on the solution. I feel the utmost sympathy for the people who are in the Visitors' Gallery, but Deputy Boyd Barrett comes in here and mentions a whole lot of very private personal circumstances. He said those people agreed that he could do that. If he wants a solution, however, he should work at it. Working at it means working at increasing the supply.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am working at it every day. I am begging the Minister.