HAP scheme is 'driving new entries into homelessness'
Michelle Norris said 20% of households should be accommodated in social or cost-rental housing.
'That would be a doubling of supply and would provide more than enough social housing to accommodate all the people currently on HAP,' she said yesterday at a Focus Ireland conference with a focus on reforming HAP. A senior Housing Commission official has called for the Government to double the social housing supply and quit relying on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Pic: Getty Images
There are 70,000 households reliant on HAP. Ms Norris said the assistance scheme should 'be used primarily to provide short-to medium-term support for households that don't have a long-term housing need'.
Conor Roe of homelessness charity Focus Ireland told of a man on disability allowances who was seeking higher HAP payments to help with arrears. The man contacted Focus Ireland after being told that he would have to be homeless for his HAP to be increased. There are approximately 70,000 households that rely on HAP. Pic: Shutterstock
Mr Roe described the man as yet another person who 'is going to have to become homeless to get themselves to higher rates, to then get themselves out of homelessness'. He said the scheme is 'driving new entries into homelessness'.
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