The chronic shortage of properties available within Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits will lead to a spiral of homelessness, Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne has warned.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe latest \u2018Locked Out of the Market\u2019 report from the Simon Communities of Ireland makes for grim reading. It shows that, in September, there was a 25 per cent decrease in the number of homes available within HAP limits since June, with just 24 properties around the country meeting the criteria.<\/p>\n
\u201cShockingly, there were no HAP-eligible properties in 11 of the 16 areas surveyed, including Cork city, Galway, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford. Where exactly are people in these areas supposed to live? Of the 24 properties available within HAP limits, 21 were in Dublin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taoiseach and Minister for Housing talk about \u2018complex\u2019 reasons for homelessness to deflect from their failures. However, the truth, as these figures show, is that lack of affordable housing is the main cause of homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are almost 60,000 households relying on HAP to put a roof over their heads. If the landlord evicts them, then they have no hope of finding another property to rent within HAP limits. This will lead to a HAP homelessness spiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cFianna F\u00e1il\/Fine Gael policy has created this disaster by privatising social housing delivery to the private rental market. In parallel, they have allowed rents to rise astronomically to incentivise investor funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of our most vulnerable citizens \u2013 including disabled people, the elderly and one-parent families \u2013 are dependent on HAP and are disproportionately impacted by the shortage of eligible properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cGovernment paralysis on housing cannot continue. We need to see an immediate rent freeze and rent reduction mechanisms put in place, alongside a ramping-up of social and affordable housing delivery, to end the State\u2019s over-reliance on HAP.\u201d<\/p>\n
October 23, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The chronic shortage of properties available within Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits will lead to a spiral of homelessness, Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne has warned. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cThe latest \u2018Locked Out of the Market\u2019 report from the Simon Communities of Ireland makes for grim reading. It shows that, in September, there was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12981,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[663,10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homelessness","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n