Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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278. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the position regarding tenants who are receiving rent support and are now being told they must move to HAP (details supplied). [11871/17]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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279. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the position regarding a tenant that is being moved to the HAP scheme but wishes to remain on the local authority waiting list for a local authority home. [11872/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 278 and 279 together.

The nationwide rollout of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme was competed with its introduction, on 1 March 2017, to the administrative areas of Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. Eligible households in all 31 local authority areas can now avail of an immediate form of social housing support, with €153 million being made available for the scheme in 2017.

Upon commencement of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme in a local authority administrative area, the availability of rent supplement support is altered and in general rent supplement will no longer be available to any new applicant households that have an identified long-term housing need.

The Department of Social Protection may request long term recipients of rent supplement to contact their local authority in order to have their housing need assessed which could potentially allow them to access HAP. Should a rent supplement recipient fail to engage with their local authority as requested, the Department of Social Protection may suspend, or ultimately cease, their rent supplement payment. Local authorities are working closely with local Department of Social Protection staff to transfer eligible households from the rent supplement scheme to HAP. The phased process of transferring households from rent supplement to HAP, which only begins after the scheme has been introduced and established in a local authority area for some months, is carefully managed in order to ensure that no gaps in support arise within the transfer process. While the operation of the rent supplement scheme is a matter for the Department of Social Protection, I understand that rent supplement has yet to be suspended or ceased due to the refusal of an existing landlord to accept HAP.

A landlord or an agent acting on behalf of a landlord is not legally obliged to enter into a tenancy agreement with a HAP recipient. However, since 1 January 2016, a person cannot be discriminated against when renting because they are getting rent supplement certain other payments, including HAP. If a person feels that they have been discriminated against by a landlord or their agent, they can make a complaint under the Equal Status Acts.

Following the commencement of the provisions in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, HAP is considered to be a social housing support and consequently households are not eligible to remain on the main housing waiting list. However, acknowledging that households on the waiting list who avail of HAP might have expectations that they would receive an allocated form of social housing support, Ministerial directions have issued to ensure that, should they so choose, HAP recipients can avail of a move to other forms of social housing support through a transfer list. With the completion of the HAP rollout and the ending of the scheme’s pilot phase, I recently signed a Ministerial Direction instructing Local Authorities to continue to offer HAP tenants access to other forms of social housing through the transfer list. This refreshed direction ensures that following completion of the HAP pilot phase, HAP tenants still get all the benefits of HAP and are no less likely to get a different form of social housing support.

The practical operation of transfer lists is a matter for each local authority to manage, on the basis of their scheme of letting priorities. The setting of such schemes is a reserved function of the local authority and as such is a matter for the elected members. I understand that the majority of HAP households do avail of the option to be placed on a transfer list. Since its statutory commencement in September 2014, some 240 households (at the end of December 2016) have transferred from the HAP scheme to other forms of social housing support.

Further information in relation to the HAP scheme is available on www.hap.ie.