Housing Strategic Policy
Committee
Meeting
9th December, 2014
Agenda
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Housing SPC - Role
Social Housing Strategy 2020
Review Housing Work Plan 2014
Homelessness
A.O.B.
1. Social Housing Strategy 2020
• Overall Objectives of a 6 year Multi-Annual
Strategy
– Pillar 1: Provide 35,000 new social housing units
– Pillar 2: Support 75,000 households in private rented
sector
– Pillar 3: Reform social housing supports
• Delivery in 2 Phases
– 2015-2017: 18,000 additional housing units and
32,000 HAP/RAS units
– 2018-2010: 17,000 additional housing units and
43,000 HAP/RAS units
Pillar 1 – Provision of New Social
Housing Supply
• 35,000 new units
– Construct
– Acquire
– Lease
• To be delivered by Local Authorities and Approved Housing
Bodies (AHB’s)
• Estimated cost €3.8 billion
• How to fund? Off balance sheet mechanisms
– NAMA SPV (National Asset Residential Property Services)
– A large scale PPP
– A new financial vehicle
Enhanced Role for AHB’s
• Encourage the formation of large scale providers
from this diverse sector
• Introduction of multi-annual housing
programmes
• Prioritisation of funding to incentivise scale
• More streamlined funding process
• Promotion of collaboration at local and regional
level between local authorities and AHB’s
• Enhanced regulation
Pillar 2 – Providing Housing Supports
through Private Rented Sector
• Housing Assistance Payment (HAP)
• Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS)
• Currently €500 million annually spent on Rent
Supplement and RAS.
• New objective for development of a cost rental
segment in the housing market to
– Avoid exposure to rising market rents
– Ensure a steady and enduring increase in the supply of
affordable and cost rental housing to help ease the
demand for social housing
Cost Rental Explained
• The basic idea of cost rental is that a housing provider
raises the finance to provide accommodation and
charges rents that are sufficient to cover both capital
costs and on-going maintenance and management.
• The alternative, profit-rental, is where a landlord
charges the maximum obtainable rent; these market
rents tend to rise with the increasing value of property.
• In normal circumstances cost-based rents will increase
slower than market rents in the same way that an
individual’s mortgage payments will generally increase
at a slower rate than market rents.
Pillar 3: Reform of Social Housing
Supports
• To ensure that social housing supports are
responsive to people’s current needs, as well
as to improvements in their circumstances
• Local authorities will continue to be key social
housing providers
• Local authorities will have an enhanced
leadership and coordination role in facilitating
and enabling social housing delivery by other
providers
Implementation of and Other Reforms
• Continuing support for transfer to HAP
• A new housing rents framework for all forms of social
housing
• A new tenant purchase scheme for existing local
authority houses
• Expansion of powers to counter anti-social behaviour
in local authority housing stock
• Choice based letting allocation process
• Development of a housing passport to facilitate tenant
mobility between local authorities
• More regular annual assessment of housing need
Where to for Kilkenny?
• Pillar 1 – Construct/Acquire/Lease
– Until we see the detail – hard to comment.
– Limited land bank for construction - reasons?
– Land we do have on which we hope to advance
housing projects either directly or with AHB’s in
2015/16
• Kilkenny City - New CAS Street
• Callan
• Castlecomer
• Acquire various brown field sites and land
• House acquisitions not an option in Kilkenny City
• Leasing
Where to for Kilkenny
• Pillar 2 – Private Rented Sector
• RAS – Over 450 tenancies at present
• HAP – Introduced in mid October and 50
tenancies to date
• Both RAS and HAP have the added value of
removing the poverty trap by facilitating
tenants to return to employment without
losing rent support
2. Housing Work Plan 2015
Martin Mullally
3. Homelessness in Kilkenny
Margaret Newport
and
Mary Cashin,
3. Homelessness in Kilkenny
1st January 2014 to 8th December 2014
•
•
•
•
Homeless
Potentially Homeless
Other
Total no presentations/referrals
354
-
228
84
42
-
Analysis of Homeless Statistics
• Of the 312 homeless/potentially homeless referrals, 94
presented with children (27 couples with children and 67
single parents with children who were predominantly
female).
• In the first quarter of 2014 Kilkenny County Council dealt
with 76 homeless/potentially homeless presentations and
this can be compared with 105 presentations in the final
quarter which is not yet finished.
• At present Kilkenny County Council is providing emergency
B&B to 4 single individuals, 1 elderly couple, and one
family. This does not include emergency accommodation
at GSC (inc. The Lodge) and Amber Women’s Refuge.
What is causing Homelessness or “At Risk of
Homelessness” in Kilkenny City
• Lack of housing supply – 6 years since any
housing scheme development.
• Limited supply of units in “unfinished” estates
• Rising rents in private rented sector combined
with landlords unwillingness to accept Rent
Supplement
• Repossessions
• Addiction(s)
• Mental illness
What could be done NOW?
• Incentivise property owners to enter the private rented
market
– Tax incentives rather than tax take
– Subsidised loans to renovate suitable properties
• Incentivise landlords to enter RAS and HAP Schemes
• Allow local authorities to give loans to bring private properties up to a
standard provided owner signs up to RAS for identified period
• Delay repossession of “buy to let” properties
• Temporary HAP arrangements where financial
institutions are repossessing
• Encourage housing applicants to remain in family home
• Incentivise “Rent-a-Room”
What not to do
• Increasing rent supplement where supply is
limited will only increase rents. The issue is
that of Supply
• Rent control may potentially reduce supply as
properties would be sold