Almost nine in every 10 properties available to rent on the market are beyond the reach of people on State housing support, according to a new study from homeless charity, the Simon Communities.
The survey, to be published on Tuesday, reveals the widening gap between State payment limits for social housing and the rental market, undermining a central plank of the Government’s plan to resolve the housing crisis: the reliance on landlords to rent social housing to State-supported tenants.
The study, Locked Out of the Market VII, shows that the housing crisis is affecting single people and couples dependent on State housing benefits worst of all, given the shortage of available rented homes and the soaring cost of rents due to severe under supply in the market.
In less than six months, the number of rental properties available to people in receipt of State housing payments fell to 12 per cent, or 72 properties, from 17 per cent, the survey shows.
Rents have increased dramatically in that time. They rose nationally by 13.4 per cent in the year to March, according to property website, Daft.ie.
The study found that there were 600 properties to rent over three days in early March – a 48 per cent reduction on the number available almost two years earlier – and that of those, just two properties were available to rent to a single person on State housing payments.
Only seven properties were available to couples within the payment limits of the State’s Rent Supplement or Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) schemes across 11 locations.
The Hap scheme has been rolled out by more local authorities with the objective of easing the housing crisis. Landlords are paid rent directly by local authorities and tenants, who can continue to work under the scheme, pay the differential rent to the local authority based on their income.
Discretionary increases can be provided, but the Simon Communities argue that applicants are assessed only on a case-by-case basis and that the application process is “very stressful and onerous”.
Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has pledged to provide 130,000 new social housing units by 2020, of which 83,000 will be provided by way of Hap tenancies and 47,000 through social housing units from new construction, purchases and other schemes.
"It is a huge cause of concern particularly for people at the lower end of the housing market, those on lower incomes and rent supplements," said Niamh Randall, national spokeswoman for the Simon Communities in Ireland.
“People are being locked out of the market and there is a huge amount of stress and pressure around the country.”
Ms Randall believes that building more social housing, linking rent increases to inflation, strengthening security of tenure for renters and devising a Government policy to address the “low-hanging fruit” of almost 200,000 empty homes will help ease the housing crisis.
There were 7,472 men, women and children in emergency accommodation in March and are about 91,000 people on social housing waiting lists.
The rental problem is most severe for tenants on State housing support in Dublin. The average rent for a two-bedroom property in the city was 110 per cent higher than housing benefit limits for a couple or single parent with two children.
It was 72 per cent higher in Dublin for a one-bedroom property for a single person.
