Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1656. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will issue a circular to all local authorities in which there are direct provision centres recommending that the local authority provide homeless HAP payments to residents of direct provision who have secured their leave to remain but due to the housing crisis have been unable to source permanent accommodation and are effectively using direct provision as a form of emergency accommodation. [35846/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Any household assessed as eligible for social housing is immediately eligible for housing support through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. HAP is available to all residents of direct provision that have secured a long-term right to residence in Ireland and are assessed as eligible for social housing support by the relevant local authority. I understand that most residents of direct provision centres that have secured leave to remain are likely to be assessed as eligible for social housing support. Once a household has been deemed eligible for social housing support, it is a matter for the local authority to examine the suite of social housing supports available, including the HAP scheme, to determine the most appropriate form of social housing support for that household in the administrative area of that local authority.

The additional supports available to homeless households via the Place Finder Service which operates in the Dublin Region and Cork City are restricted to eligible homeless households. Eligible homeless households are defined in  Housing Assistance Payment (Section 50) (No. 3) Regulations 2014 which provided for the additional discretion available to homeless households under the Homeless HAP scheme operated in the Dublin Region, as follows: “a person or persons regarded by a housing authority as being homeless, within the meaning of section 2 of the Housing Act 1988 (No. 28 of 1988),”. Residents of direct provision centres, including those that have secured leave to remain and are eligible to be assessed for social housing supports, are not considered to be homeless.