Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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766. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the number of landlords in the private rented sector who have signed up to the housing assistance payment scheme, in each of the pilot areas; and if he will provide figures, by area. [30202/15]

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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767. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide departmental estimates of the number of households that are expected to be taken off social housing waiting lists, and placed on reserve social housing waiting lists, as a result of the roll-out of the housing assistance payment scheme; and if he will provide the latest figures on the number of households that have been removed from the social housing waiting list, and placed on the reserve social housing waiting list in the pilot areas. [30203/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 766 and 767 together.

The Social Housing Strategy 2020 set a target of meeting the housing needs of 8,400 households through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) in 2015, and 41,400 households over the lifetime of the strategy.

Further to the enactment of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014 on 28 July 2014, HAP has been rolled out to all categories of households in 13 local authority areas on a pilot basis. Dublin City Council is also implementing a HAP pilot for homeless households in the Dublin region on behalf of the 4 Dublin local authorities. There are now over 2,6 00 households in receipt of HAP across the local authority areas taking part in the statutory pilot scheme and consideration is currently being given to the sequencing of a further cohort of local authorities to commence HAP on an incremental basis this year. My Department does not hold a detailed breakdown, by local authority, of landlords who are receiving payments on behalf of HAP households. However, I understand that there are almost 1,900 separate landlords currently receiving HAP payments through the HAP transactional shared service hub that is currently being provided by Limerick City and County Council.

Applicants for social housing support are assessed by the relevant housing authority in accordance with section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, as amended and the associated Social Housing Regulations 2011. Households that qualify for social housing support on assessment are entered onto the housing authority’s waiting list and are considered for the allocation of suitable tenancies in accordance with the authority’s allocation scheme. The most up-to-date available figures for housing list numbers, which relate to 2013, predate the introduction of HAP. However, the Social Housing Strategy 2020 published by the Government in November 2014 includes a commitment to undertake a summary of social housing assessments on an annual basis from 2016.

As HAP is deemed to be a social housing support under section 19 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, as amended, those households in receipt of HAP are no longer included on the local authority waiting list for social housing support. However, HAP recipients may access other social housing supports by applying to go on the local authority transfer list. I issued a statutory direction to the local authorities involved in the HAP statutory pilot, instructing them to take the necessary steps to ensure that households benefitting from HAP can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support, should they wish to do so, through the transfer option. I also directed that HAP recipients, who apply to go on the transfer list, should get full credit for the time they spent on the waiting list and be placed on the transfer list with no less favourable terms than if they had remained on the waiting list. In practice, housing authorities inform HAP recipients in writing of their entitlement to apply to go on the transfer list when they are approved for HAP. My Department does not gather or hold any data in relation to the number of households supported by HAP who have availed of this option.

The following table details the number of households being supported by the scheme by pilot authority area.