New report finds no 'affordable' homes to rent in Athlone

A report published today by the Simon Community has highlighted a severe shortage of affordable homes to rent in Ireland, saying Athlone was one of several towns with no homes available that were priced within Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limits last month.

The report - entitled Locked Out Of The Market: The Gap Between HAP Limits and Market Rents - underlines the extreme difficulty faced by individuals and families seeking a home that qualifies for the HAP supplement.

It stated that, over three dates last month, just 737 unique properties were available to rent, at any price, across 16 areas surveyed in Ireland. Of these, almost 70% of the properties (502) were in the Dublin area.

Just 80 homes were on offer within the HAP payment limits, and most of these were in Dublin.

"Outside of Dublin, properties available to rent within HAP limits are worryingly low," stated the report.

"Ten of the 16 study areas had no properties available to rent in any household category within standard or discretionary HAP limits. These were: Athlone, Cork City Centre, Cork City suburbs, Galway City Centre, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick City suburbs, Limerick City Centre, Portlaoise, and Waterford City Centre."

A total of twelve properties were available to rent in Athlone at prices in excess of the HAP limits during the three dates examined in March. This was a slight increase on the nine properties available to rent in Athlone when a similar study was carried out last December.

The report by the Simon Community said the lack of affordable one-bedroom properties was "concerning" given the rise in homelessness among adults.

"According to the latest figures released by the Department of Housing, 6,825 adults were living in emergency homeless accommodation; the highest figure for adults ever recorded," it pointed out.

The report included a case study about Robert, a single man experiencing homelessness who has been struggling to find and compete for affordable accommodation in his area through HAP.

He said that he and others like him were "at the bottom of the pile" when seeking a place to rent.

"You find one that's in your price range and there's 6, 7 other people in front of you there and a lot of them have cash in their hand ready to go because they know how hard it is. A lot of them have parents or family that are there behind them.

"People in our situations don't have a lot of that support, so we don't have that option," he said.