COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, June 24, 2013

MOTION NO.

MOTION: Councillor M. Corr

That the Manager gives an update with regard to the uptake of leasing and availability agreements for property in the Tallaght area - to show the process timeline from start to finish, the average speed of the procurement process and how quickly existing tenancy arrangements are being absorbed into the system.

REPORT:

Local Housing Authorities have been legally empowered to lease housing for social housing purposes since the Housing Act of 1966 was passed into law.

The government's Housing Policy Statement, published in June 2011, sets out the framework for national housing policy for the coming years and is focused on developing a new way forward for housing including maximising the delivery of social housing supports within the resources available.

The Social Housing Leasing Initiative (SHLI) facilitates the procurement of privately owned property under lease arrangements for the the provision of social  housing. Both long term and availability arrangements are available to property owners.

The Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) is an initiative to cater for the accommodation needs of persons in receipt of Social Welfare rent supplement payments for in excess of  18 months and who are deemed to have a long-term social housing need. 

As at 31/5/13 the Council has entered into leasing agreements for 99 properties in the Tallaght electoral area for social use under the terms of SHLI of which 69 of these properties were secured under long term lease arrangements and 30 properties under short term availability type arrangements.

In support of and as a driver to the SHLI the Council initiated the Applicant Sourced Homes(ASH) scheme. Under ASH housing applicants are given the option to source suitable accommodation in accordance with their assessed housing needs and provided the Council can reach a satisfactory agreement with the property owner, the Council will lease the property on behalf of the housing applicant. Housing applicants are afforded the ASH option in accordance with their placement on the housing list. To date the Council has contacted 1105 applicants South of Naas Road(SNR) advising of the ASH option to which 270 responses received from housing applicants. As at 31/5/13, 15 cases (applicants who opted to proceed with the ASH option) are at various stages of processing in terms of

Lease agreements have been completed in respect of 21 ASH applicants SNR of which 8 were in their existing accommodation.    

In addition to the Social Housing Leasing Initiative, the Council has 571 lease contracts under RAS arrangements in the Tallaght electoral area for social housing provision of which 378 are  in respect of applicants in their existing accommodation.  

 While there is no prescribed timeline for the completion of lease agreement under SHLI or RAS, the dedicated Procurement Unit team use all available resources to secure a lease terms satisfactory to all parties as speedily as possible. Once agreement has been reached to explore a property for inclusion in RAS/SHLI, the first step is the completion of a property inspection for relevant standards which is normally carried out within 1 week. Thereafter the timeline is very much dictated by the co-operation of the property owner in regards bringing the property to required standard and submission of all necessary support documents (eg. tax clearance certificate, BER certificate, electrical/gas certification).

It should also be noted that where units become available for letting / reletting either through casual vacancy, RAS, Leasing or Voluntary Housing Bodies,  details are published on the Council's Choice Based Letting site so that they can become absorbed into the system at the earliest possible opportunity.