COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 09, 2013

MOTION NO.7

MOTION: Councillor C. King

That this Council calls on the Manager to re-establish the former sub Committee of the Council dealing with Housing matters in the very short term to deal with recent changes to the manner in which RAS and ASH applicants and tenants are dealt with in terms of their obligation to source alternative accommodation if their current accommodation to not conform with RAS or ASH standards taking into account that this can manifest itself in the form of applicants having to source in excess of over €1,000 to change address as a result of ultimatums set upon them by the RAS and ASH sections as is interpreted in the current correspondence being sent to applicants. That this Committee also deal with the lack of information provided to Cllrs in terms of what might seem like small changes to schemes but that have significant impact on information being provided by Cllrs to their Constituents such as the recent change that RAS applicants are now eligible to apply for housing through CBL which was not relayed to Councillors. That this sub Committee of the Full Council be reconvened as a matter of urgency.

REPORT:

It was agreed at the November 2013 Housing SPC to reconvene the sub committee for informal discussions on housing issues and this will be held on Friday 13th December 2013 at 3pm. This is open to all members if they wish to attend.

In terms of the RAS and ASH schemes, private residential letting / leasing opportunities are available to the Council under Leasing and Availability Agreements for the provision of social housing to meet the assessed accommodation  needs of applicants on the housing list. All allocations of social housing is in accordance with the Council's Allocations Scheme 2011.

Leasing Agreements  are  for property owners who want long-term guaranteed income, but do not want to be responsible for the day-to-day requirements of managing tenants and maintaining a residential property.

Availability Agreement is a way of providing social housing where the owner becomes the landlord to the tenant allocated by the local authority and is responsible for all management and maintenance issues except rent collection.

Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) is an initiative to cater for the accommodation needs of persons in receipt of rent supplement payments from the Department of Social Protectin, normally for more than 18 months and who are assessed as having a long-term social housing need. 

Applicant Sourced Homes (ASH) is an initiative whereby housing applicants are invited to source homes of their choice, suited to their needs, in an area of their choice within South Dublin County Council area and the Council then leasees it and pays the lease rent on behalf of the tenant for up to 20 years, subject to the Council coming to an agreement with the house/ apartment owner.  

By way of explanation on how the schemes work for applicants: 

Every fortnight the Housing Dept. runs a report which extracts details of housing applicants in order of their placement on the housing list and of their assessed housing need.     This list is then matched against records available to the Council which indicates which applicants are RAS eligible (i.e. in receipt of RS for more that 18 months) and others ASH eligible.     

Applicants in private rented accommodation in a property that meets their assessed housing needs, and who would like to remain in that accommodation, are advised to ask the landlord to establish if he/she would consider engaging with the Council to make the property available under a leasing or availability agreement.  Subject to a number of conditions which include propery meeting required standards, valid tax clearance etc the property can be procured by the Council with the existing tenant as an incumbent.

However when / if the private accommodation occupied by the applicants is excessive  or in some isolated cases moderate to or below the assessed housing need, the Council must request the applicant to source an alternative property.   A Housing Authority must have due regard for housing need as opposed to housing desire  and over / under provision of social accommodation cannot be facilitated, notwithstanding that there may well be implications for the applicant, and indeed in some cases the landlord.

The Fixed R A S transfer list of approximately 300 applicants  has been in existence since  December 2011. There has been some movement in progressing applicants from R A S tenure to Council ternure in this period . However in order to facilitate a more transparent and workable method of facilitating these applicants specific desire to access a Council tenancy in areas of their choice , access to the C B L system was provided on 23rd  October 2013.  This was as the  alternative to the Allocations Section  trawling through several lists e.g North of the Naas Road / South of the Naas Road , 1 bedroom units 2 bedroom units etc. Should the applicant on the fixed transfer list not accept the Allocations Section offer they would be removed from this list .

It was anticapated that this additional facility for applicants would be presented to the November S P C and thereby inform the members, however  progress on the adaption of the C B L system to facilitate the fixed transfer list became available earlier than anticipated and became live prior to the S P C  meeting .