HAP effectively in state of collapse
HAP effectively in state of collapse - The Labour Party
- Simon Community report confirms just 14 HAP properties available in 16 areas surveyed in March
- Minister must increase HAP limits now and introduce a rent brake
Labour’s housing spokesperson Conor Sheehan TD has urged real intervention to protect vulnerable renters as the Simon Community’s Locked Out of the Market report finds just 14 HAP properties available across 16 areas surveyed in March.
Deputy Sheehan said the failure by Government to protect renters and to meet its targets for social and affordable housing for the fifth year in a row is driving more and more people into homelessness and housing insecurity.
Deputy Sheehan said:
“Housing is beyond a mess under Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and the private rental sector is effectively slamming the door on vulnerable people across the country. That there were no HAP properties available across cities like Galway, Cork, Portlaoise, Waterford and my own Limerick is deeply concerning.
“Everything this Government has touched on housing has created more stress, more insecurity and more uncertainty. Rents have increased by more than 100 percent over the past decade and by almost 50 percent since Covid alone. Every new report tells the same story. The market is broken and the Government refuses to fix it.
“The Minister commissioned a long overdue review into HAP limits this year. He should have done that before bringing in his rent hike bill.
“He must urgently expedite the HAP review on his desk and move to increase HAP limits immediately. We cannot have any more dithering on this.
“The fact of the matter is that Minister Browne’s rent hike bill mean that this emergency will only worsen as the rent hikes caused by allowing landlords to reset rents to the market rate is going to cause rents to go up and up.
“We need a rent brake now, as Labour called for during the passage of the RTB Amendment Bill to protect tenants from unsustainable rent increases.
“This report comes in the same week that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are reheating their plan to put renters in beds in sheds. That only 14 properties were available at a time when the Rental Tenancies Board has confirmed more and more people are receiving notices to quit is nothing short of a national disgrace.
“If Government is serious about addressing the housing crisis, and ensuring that those renting in the private sector have some sense of security, it must focus on delivering secure, affordable homes at scale, not on creating new avenues for precarious and potentially unsafe living arrangements by letting landlords rent out modular units at market rent.
“Tomorrow the Department of Housing will publish its latest homeless figures. This number will undoubtedly and devastatingly continue to rise in light of the failing private rental market.”