John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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476. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans to extend the homeless housing assistance payment scheme outside County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33459/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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A specific and targeted service for homeless households, who can benefit from the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme has been available across the four housing authorities in the Dublin Region since February 2015, and is being implemented by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). The focus is on transitioning qualified households from emergency accommodation into private rented tenancies. However, support is also provided to prevent households from entering emergency accommodation and homeless services. In addition, a Homeless Placefinder Service is also operating in Cork City since May 2017.

While eligible households may source accommodation for themselves, the dedicated placement team, the Homeless Placefinder Service, engages directly with property owners and supports qualified households to find suitable tenancies, and to ensure that any additional supports that may be needed are put in place. Homeless-specific HAP in Dublin encompasses additional flexibility to exceed the specific rent limit by up to 50%; in Cork this flexibility is up to 20% above the maximum rent limit.

The Service has relationships with local estate agents and property owners and can identify properties quickly. In addition, the Placefinder Service can support homeless households to secure a tenancy by providing up-front payments for deposits and rent. The cost of these deposits is recouped by the Department of Social Protection in respect of eligible households, and the HAP Shared Service Centre (SSC) facilitates the payment of HAP rent payments to landlords, on behalf of local authorities, as is the case ordinarily in the operation of the HAP scheme.

There are currently more than 1,600 formerly homeless households whose needs are being supported  by the homeless specific HAP supports in the Dublin region, with an average of 32 additional Dublin households a week in 2017 being supported by homeless HAP.

There are no plans to expand the operation of the Homeless Placefinder Service outside of the Dublin Region and Cork City. I am satisfied that the HAP scheme is generally working well, despite the challenging rental market, but I will keep its operation under on-going review.