COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, June 25, 2018

QUESTION NO. 9

QUESTION: Councillor Emma Hendrick

"Allocation of Council housing has changed and Homelessness is no longer a priority. SDCC are now taking a person’s time spent on the housing list and their time spent in homeless accommodation to assess where they are on the list. To ask the Chief Executive when was this decision made? Have SDCC contacted everyone in homeless accommodation to inform them of this change?"

REPLY:

There has been no change to our allocations policy in so far as we are still prioritising homeless applicants for housing along with the other categories (medical, OAP, etc.) 

This matter has been discussed on a number of occasions at the Housing SPC meetings. Following the most recent consideration and discussion of the matter at the last Housing Strategic Policy Committee it was agreed to continue to prioritise homeless applicants for housing but to change the order in which they are offered housing.    

To date the process has been to offer housing to those who have been longest on the homeless list.  However this ignored the time the applicants had spent on the housing list itself and this was felt to be unfair. Following discussion it was agreed to add the time spent on the housing list to the time on the homeless list to chronologically order the homeless list. 

We have recently implemented this process for all offers to the homeless applicants who were offered housing in Skeffington Meadows and Mayfield and it is working well. 

In addition all homeless applicants have access to Choice Based Letting system (CBL) and should continue to use this facility as it may well enable them to obtain a tenancy faster due to the increased number of houses available through that process.  It also does not require them to wait for the Council to make an offer under the homeless catergory

Homeless Applicants also have the enhanced rate of HAP payments available to them and can seek private rented accommodation throughout the region.  If and when they obtain a HAP letting they will retain their time on the list for the purposes of transfer to a Council House.  They also have access to CBL for that purpose. 

We are also placing placement officers and key workers in all HUBS with a view to assisting new homeless applicants to seek HAP as this is likely to continue to be the quickest way out of homelessness for such applicants.