RAS tenant at risk of eviction
Joan Collins raised a constituent facing loss of a RAS tenancy and possible homelessness because of conflicting advice from Meath County Council. The Minister said councils remain responsible for housing people in RAS and HAP tenancies and would examine the details further.
I have had contact from a woman with a young family who is a healthcare worker in my constituency. She is facing eviction from a rental accommodation scheme, RAS, tenancy in Meath on 31 May. Meath County Council has told her it will stop the RAS payments if she overholds, that she needs to leave the home on the date of the termination and that she needs to find a housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancy because there is nowhere to house the family. I have email evidence of that from the council.
It is near impossible to find anywhere to live right now. This woman and her kids have nowhere to go. As the Taoiseach knows, RAS tenants are deemed as having been housed, so it is the responsibility of the council to house them in the event of notices to quit. My office has dealt with many cases of this with Dublin County Council. It has continued the RAS payments when a tenant is overholding and it leaves overholding as a matter for the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to determine, although the council has a responsibility to house the tenant. Will the Taoiseach ensure that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage standardises Dublin City Council's approach in order that no councils will be in any way complicit in evictions into homelessness? Will his Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party councillors on Meath County Council support that?
Comment on this
As the Deputy is probably aware, under the RAS scheme, it is the responsibility of the councils to keep people housed, even if a RAS tenancy has been terminated. That appears to contradict what the Deputy stated, so we might discuss further the details of the case. We want to keep people in their homes and certainly, as the Deputy is well aware, under RAS it is up to the local authorities to ensure people continue to be housed in RAS tenancies. Furthermore, where people are on HAP, we want to ensure that if they get a termination notice, they are kept in their homes. The tenant in situ scheme is there for that purpose. I might talk to the Deputy after this debate about the specific details of the case. They do not correspond with national policy.