Council HAP applications in Waterford have increased by 87% in the past year.
That's according to Councillor Stephanie Keating who raised the issue at this month's Metropolitan council meeting.
Thresholds for social housing applicants have raised to €35,000 leading to an influx of new applicants.
Councillor Keating says the system is under increased pressure. She added: "The number of new applications in January 2023 was 153 compared to 21 in January 2022. I know that we had an increase in social housing income from €30,000 to €35,000 and I welcome that. The reality is if this trend continues we are going to have far more numbers of suitable applicants in the system."
The HAP system was introduced in 2017 to deal with the influx of applicants requiring social housing. The tenant would pay a portion of the rent and the council pays the remaining balance after a means-tested review.
Councillor Keating added:" Have we the resources to deal with the processing of these extra applications?. Will the influx of these extra applications slow down the processing time for approving applicants? If that is the case, how much extra staff will we need because of the extra work involved?
How many HAP properties in the metro area are failing and do we know the reasons for it? Can we assist the smaller landlord to avail of an interest-free loan that could be compensated through the HAP payment? It is crucial we keep the smaller landlord in the housing market.".
In response, a housing official from the council's management board said" We imagine the figures we see for February will be the same as January. There is a change in applicants. People's circumstances have changed. A possible reason for the increase is that we informed a lot of people about the increase in the threshold to qualify for social housing.
"Regarding the resources in the applications team, I believe we do have the resources and we reviewed the system last year. If we are in a case where we do not have enough resources, we will address it.
"HAP properties are required to be of a certain standard and we continuously carry out reviews to ensure this is being enforced.
"Unfortunately, there is no system in place at the moment to compensate landlords to carry out work but we do carry out those inspections. If a scheme was to be put in place, it would need to be a national scheme and not unique to Waterford.
For your latest Waterford News and Sport, click here.
