The latest Locked Out of the Market report from the Simon Community is showing the dire consequences of the Government’s overreliance on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) system, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n
Deputy O\u2019Callaghan, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on housing, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly 38 homes in the entire country are now falling within the HAP criteria, with not a single home available in Athlone, Cork city centre, Galway city, Limerick city, Sligo town or Portlaoise.<\/p>\n
\u201cFine Gael\u2019s disastrous decision to introduce HAP in 2014 solidified their move from bricks to benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of building enough desperately needed social housing, the State is now handing over half a billion euro a year to private landlords.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 56,848 renters who have managed to find a HAP tenancy still have no long-term security and live in constant fear of eviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis overreliance on HAP is a direct result of this Government\u2019s dismal record of building social homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have missed their social housing targets by 9,527 homes since taking office while simultaneously leaving hundreds of millions of the social housing budget unspent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a monumental failure that is resulting in more and more people competing for the handful of HAP properties available in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get back to basics. What people on the social housing waiting list need is a social home \u2013 not endless handouts to private\u00a0landlords.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 15, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The latest Locked Out of the Market report from the Simon Community is showing the dire consequences of the Government’s overreliance on the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) system, according to Social Democrats TD Cian O\u2019Callaghan. Deputy O\u2019Callaghan, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on housing, said: \u201cOnly 38 homes in the entire country are now falling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,10,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n