Working families now need State help to pay rent

ONE in four households which qualify for social housing is working, startling new figures show.

Budget documents reveal that 24.2pc of all households which are qualified to secure housing support is at work, up from 21.9pc in 2017, as high rental costs force thousands of workers to rely on the State.

The ‘Social Housing Supports’ assessment carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform also finds the numbers in receipt of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) who are working but do not receive any welfare supports is growing.

It comes amid growing concern about the amount of money being paid to private landlords to provide social units.

Some €423m has been allocated for HAP next year, an increase of €121m, which will support a total of 87,000 households. While landlords have received tax relief to reduce their mortgage interest bills, there was criticism that no measures were provided for tenants.

The social housing assessment provides an overview of supports and levels of expenditure, and finds that €2.08bn will be spent on housing this year. It also says the average age of people living in local authority or voluntary body housing is higher than in the private rental sector, with more women then men in the system.

But it also reveals almost 60pc of those on the social housing waiting list are renting private accommodation, highlighting the State’s reliance on private landlords.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has said that, by 2021, more people will be housed in council homes than in the private sector.

The report highlights how rising rent costs brought about by a lack of supply is resulting in the Government having to subsidise workers’ rents.

In the first half of 2018, the “greatest proportional increase” in HAP was for employed recipients, with no welfare supports, which rose by almost 50pc. “The increased number of those employed with no social welfare support could be due, in part, to the additional requirement for the HAP subsidy by this cohort of working people in the Dublin area,” it says.

“It can be observed that the increase in employed persons in receipt of HAP is concentrated in areas of high demand for housing generally.”

Figures show that in the first half of 2018, some 9,289 new HAP tenancies were established. Of these, one in three were for workers.

In 2017, there were 85,799 households assessed as qualifying for social housing support. Of these, 21.9pc were employed on a full- or parttime basis or self-employed. This year, 71,858 qualify and 24.2pc are employed.

When sources of income for the main applicant are taken into account, it finds that in 2017, 14.2pc relied in employment income. This has increased to 16.1pc. Some 8.5pc relied on a combination of employment and social welfare in 2017, which increased to 9.2pc this year.

a friend for a while until I found somewhere to rent but it wasn’t affordable. Other students ended up staying for prolonged periods in hostels.

I moved into a house with friends eventually but was paying rent I couldn’t afford. We stayed there for around seven months, until the landlord said he wanted to refurbish the house. It took several very stressful weeks to find a new home in Dún Laoghaire. After hundreds of emails and phone calls, I was really lucky and found a home with my friends. There was a queue of families outside and they really needed a home, but I had just made that call first.

I share the house now with my four friends and I pay 30pc of my salary every month on rent. That’s too much. It’s so hard to find a home to rent and when you do, the prices are so high.

I’m worried that if my rent increased to €800, I wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Ireland anymore.

I can’t see a long-term future in Ireland unless the property sector is controlled. I expected something to help renters in the Budget, but there was nothing.

The Government is relying heavily on private landlords and developers to provide properties for renters. But they are charging too high rents and there is absolutely no security for renters.

The best answer is the Government building its own houses, to include affordable homes for sale and affordable properties to rent. And a cap should be set on how much rent or sale prices apply to each house.

This system would be much better and fairer, but leaving housing in the private market is proving to be a failure. Not addressing the housing crisis is detrimental to Ireland.

News will spread about how bad Ireland’s housing problem is.