New National Housing Strategy for Disabled People

The second National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 – 2027 was published on 14th January 2022 by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) with the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).

 

The second Strategy to 2027 will build on the considerable achievements of the 2011 Strategy, continuing the journey of the last 10 years which saw many people with disabilities allocated suitable housing, new structures developed to align housing provision with needed health and social care supports, progress made on decongregation into community residential care and increasing awareness and understanding of disability and housing within housing and disability services.

 

The 2022 Strategy re-echoes the vision of the first Strategy with a particular emphasis on disabled people having choice and control over their living arrangements. It seeks ‘to facilitate disabled people to live independently with the appropriate choices and control over where, how and with whom they live, promoting their inclusion in the community; and to further enable equal access for disabled people to housing with integrated support services’.

 

This new Strategy has been developed to clearly present Government’s vision for housing for disabled people:

• by the three key Departments involved
• following a comprehensive 8-month, 2-phase consultation including online focus groups held with the Disability Participation and Consultation Network
• to support and strengthen the co-operation and collaboration of Government departments, state agencies, local authorities and others in delivering housing and related supports for disabled people over the next five years

 

A thematic approach to delivery is set out in the Strategy with each theme having desired outcomes that when delivered will contribute to the overall vision. The six themes include accessible housing and communities and affordability of housing alongside themes related to further developing knowledge, capacity and expertise across the sector and collaboration between the policy and delivery partners across the State. Key elements of progress from the 2011 Strategy in the new 2022-2027 Strategy are:

• The Vision for the new Strategy has evolved from the first Strategy and, driven by the feedback to the consultation, now places independent living and being included in the community at its centre
• The new Strategy aligns with the principles and provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and implementation of the new Strategy will be monitored through a UNCRPD lens
• the structures that were established under the first Strategy, and which are widely regarded as being key to the progress made, have been reviewed and the new Strategy seeks to improve their operation and overall effectiveness.

 

Attention now turns to work on the very important Implementation Plan for the Strategy, the preparation of which will be overseen by The Housing Agency, and to be published by mid-year, detailing how outcomes will be achieved. Pending development of the Implementation Plan, a number of Actions requiring immediate progress are included by Theme.

 

The suite of documents accompanying the Strategy can be found below.

• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 (Word Version)
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 Executive Summary

 

• An Straitéis Tithíochta Náisiúnta do Dhaoine faoi Mhíchumas 2022 - 2027
• An Straitéis Tithíochta Náisiúnta do Dhaoine faoi Mhíchumas 2022 - 2027 Achoimre Fheidhmeach

 

• National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2022 - 2027 Easy Read Version
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People Executive Summary 2022-2027 Plain English
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 - 2027 Consultation Report

 

• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 - 2027 Implementation Plan
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 - 2027 Implementation Plan Easy Read Version
• National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 - 2027 Implementation Plan Accessible Word Version

 

Supplementary Documents: 

• Analysis of Households with a Disability Basis of Need for Social Housing
• Collaborative Working in the Housing and Disability Steering Groups
• Disability and Housing: Approaches in Other Jurisdictions
• Review of the National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2011-2016 (extended to 2021)

 

 

Audio Version of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People Strategy Document

01 - Disability Terminology

02 - Foreword & Contents

03 - Executive Summary & Overview of Themes

04 - Introduction

05 - Section 1 - Chapter 1 - National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability 2011 - 2016 (extended to 2021)

06 - Chapter 2 - National Disability Inclusion Strategy

07 - Chapter 3 - Progress on UNCRPD

08 - Chapter 4 - Policy Context

09 - Section 2 - Chapter 5 - Statistical Overview

10 - Chapter 6 - Research on Models and Practices

11 - Chapter 7 - Consultation

12 - Section 3 - Chapter 8 - The Strategy and the United Nations

13 - Chapter 9 - Vision and Themes

14 - Chapter 9 - Themes

15 - Section 4 - Chapter 10 - Implementation Plan

16 - Chapter 11 - Implementation Structures

17 - Chapter 12 - Monitoring and Data Collection

18 - Appendix 1 - Membership of the National Advisory Group

19 - Appendix 2 - Glossary of Terms

20 - Appendix 3 - References | The Housing Agency

Audio Version of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People Executive Summary

00 Terminology, Contents, Timelines

01 Introduction

02 Housing For All

03 The Strategy and the UNCRPD

04 Themes

05 Implementation Plan

Audio Version of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People Strategy Easy to Read Version

01 Introduction

02 Section 1 - What Has Been Done

03 Section 2 - Where We Are Now

04 Section 3 - Where We Want To Get To

05 Section 4 - How We Will Get There

06 Data Collection

Audio Version of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People Strategy Implementation Plan

01 - Contents

02 - Introduction

03 - The Vision

04 - National Housing Policy

05 - Mapping of Housing and Disability Policy

06 - Themes

07 - Implementation Structures

08 - Update on the Implementation of the Strategy

09 - Funding Committments

10 - Theme 1 - Accessible Housing and Communities

11 - Theme 2 - Interagency Collaboration and the Provision of Supports

12 - Theme 3 - Affordability of Housing

13 - Theme 4 - Communication and Access to Information

14 - Theme 5 - Knowledge, Capacity, and Expertise

15 - Theme 6 - Strategy Alignment

 

Community-Led Housing is a ground-up approach which enables people to pool their collective resources to create homes that are accessible and affordable to all. It understands housing not as just the ‘provision of houses,’ but the empowerment of diverse, sustainable communities.

SOA Research has launched its new publication series, Roadmapping a Viable Community-Led Housing Sector for Ireland, which comprises a series of handbooks on Community-Led Housing, offering guidance in the areas of Policy, Finance, Land and Getting your Group Ready.

Supported by The Housing Agency, The Land Development Agency, Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance and the Goethe lnstitut Irland, SOA Research initiated and coordinated a 12-month research project to roadmap a Community-Led Housing infrastructure for Ireland, which culminates in this new publication series. Project stakeholders included eight Irish CLH groups as well as public and private sector housing practitioners in Ireland and across Europe. 

Read the publication series below:

• Overview
• Policy
• Finance
• Land
• Getting Your Group Ready

 

Read The Housing Agency's Annual Report 2019 here.

Léigh Tuarascáil Bhliantúil na Gníomhaireachta Tithíochta 2019 anseo.

This report presents a review of the role of social workers and other personnel employed by local authorities specifically to assist Travellers with their accommodation needs.

It was commissioned by The Housing Agency on behalf of the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

This publication was written by Michelle Norris, Angela Palmer, Joanne Kelleher and Jim Campbell, School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin.

The report can be read here.

Since the mid-1960s, local authorities have employed social workers to support Travellers in meeting their accommodation needs. Since then, the nature and scale of the demands on local authority housing departments have changed and local authorities have taken on new housing responsibilities.

This report found continuing levels of  accommodation need among this community and makes a number of recommendations to improve the effectiveness of this service in the context of the wider local authority housing service. This includes the implementation of the recommendations of the Traveller Accommodation Expert Review 2019.

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Housing Agency, the Minister of State or the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Produced by The Housing Agency using local authority data, the annual Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA) brings together information provided by local authorities on households that are qualified for social housing support but whose social housing need is not currently being met. It is a point-in-time assessment of the identified need for social housing support across the country.

The SSHA 2020 report can be read here.

 

Among the key findings of SSHA 2020 are:

• The number of households with an unmet social housing need fell by 10% in 2020, to 61,880.
• 25 of 31 local authorities recorded fewer households on their lists than in 2019. An additional 354 households were identified across the six local authorities where the number with an unmet need for social housing had increased.
• More than four-in-ten households with an unmet social housing need live in the four Dublin local authorities.
• The majority of unmet need is in small households: single adult households account for over half of those with an unmet need for social housing (52%), while nearly a quarter are lone parent households (24%).
• The number of households waiting longer is falling; the share of households waiting for more than four years fell by almost four percentage points (from 48.7% to 44.8%). Conversely, the share of households waiting for fewer than two years increased by 1.6 percentage points (from 33.8% to 35.4%).

This report features case studies from Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark into innovations in design and construction of social, affordable and co-operative housing in Europe.

The report can be read here.

The report Thinking Ahead: The Financial Benefits of Investing in Supported Housing for Older People was conducted as part of a range of recommended actions under the policy statement ‘Housing Options for Our Ageing Population’, published by the Government in March 2019.

Carried out by The Housing Agency, this research found that, by supporting people to live in homes suited to their needs, an average annual Government saving of €4,650 per person can be made, compared to that individual remaining in their current home or moving into long term residential care.

The figures are based on the provision of Supported Housing for 11,400 people over the next 10 years, a number derived from expected projections in Ireland’s population aged over 80.

The report Thinking Ahead: The Financial Benefits of Investing in Supported Housing for Older People is available here.

Attitudinal Survey of Mature Homeowners

On 29 October 2020 the Minister for State with responsibility for Local Government and Planning, Peter Burke TD, launched both the above report, and the Attitudinal Survey of Mature Homeowners, which was conducted by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service.

You can read the Attitudinal Survey of Mature Homeowners here.

Housing Agency National Study of Irish Housing Experiences, Attitudes and Aspirations in Ireland - Apartment Living in Ireland 2019.  This study set out to find out how satisfied people living in apartments were with their homes.

The information in this research study was collected by: face-to-face Interviews with more than 500 people living in apartments, two focus groups with families with young children living in apartments and two focus groups with older renters, a literature review and a summary of recent policy changes, legislation and guidelines that impact on the development of apartment living.

The report is available here.

The Mortgage to Rent Scheme is a Government initiative that was set up in 2012 to help people who are finding it extremely difficult to meet mortgage repayments every month to stay in their home.

Under the Mortgage to Rent Scheme, a person will voluntarily surrender ownership of their home to their lender. A third party will then buy the home from the lender. The person will no longer own their home but they will continue to live in it as a tenant, while paying an income--related rent set by their local authority.

This Guide outlines the benefits of the Mortgage to Rent scheme, criteria for qualification, and terms and conditions that apply.

Read the report

Each year, the Housing Agency carries out an assessment of households qualified for social housing support. The Summary of Social Housing Assessments brings together information provided by local authorities on households that are qualified for social housing support but whose social housing need is not currently being met. It is a point-in-time assessment of the identified need for social housing support across the country.

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