The ICSH was delighted to to address theCommittee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage on Special Needs Housing and Supported Housing on Tuesday 27th January. Lyndsey Anderson, ICSH Housing Policy Specialist attended alongside colleagues from Housing Association for Integrated Living, Fold Housing and The Irish Wheelchair Association, some of our AHB members who play a key role in delivering and managing housing for low-income tenants with additional support needs.
The AHB sector has been a key delivery agent for special needs and supported housing since the emergence and growth of the sector over the past 40 years with a key competence in the delivery of specialist housing for older and disabled people.
In recent years, special needs housing and supported housing delivery has been much lower than the scale required.
The AHB sector’s public housing stock amounts to approximately 70,000 homes, with over 20,000 of these housing units being for people with special needs and those who require supported housing, typically using CAS. Historically, the highest annual delivery of CAS homes by AHBs was 1,078 in 2009 and the highest recent annual delivery was 710 homes in 2022. Our sector completed 634 homes in 2023, 573 homes in 2024, and 325 in 2025. Current pipeline delivery with approval for 2026 is 348. AHBs have the capacity to deliver many more.
The delivery and management of specialist housing involve multiple stakeholders and funders and can involve additional timelines and costs. At times, complexities must be built into design and deliver stages, as well as at tenanting and management stages. Stakeholders may include DHLGH, HSE, DoH, LA and HIQA. This complexity can result in longer lead-in times, delayed delivery and increased costs, ultimately leading to fewer households being accommodated in suitable, safe, and secure homes.
In recent years, we are particularly concerned about the lower number of homes being delivered for disabled people and older persons. The number of households with a specific accommodation requirement due to ‘physical, sensory, mental or intellectual impairment’ increased by 402 from 2023 to a total of 4,348 households in 2024, a relative increase of 10.2%. It should be noted that the level of housing need for disabled people in particular remains under-reported. The ICSH supports the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022 – 2027 recommendation that 10% of all new social housing be reserved for households qualified under a basis of need of disability, and that 50% of this be built to a universal design standard that is both wheelchair accessible and wheelchair liveable. The Housing Commission report notes that, when compared to households on the social housing waiting lists, output under the CAS scheme, the primary funding stream used for these homes, currently falls well short of need.
Delivery and Management Opportunities
- AHB Strategic Review report; action 8 specifically
- Delivering homes, Building Communities; Housing Delivery Action Plans
- Skilled and experienced AHB sector
- Large mixed tenure AHB schemes with scope for proportionate delivery
- Buy and Renew via CAS facilitate delivery in well serviced areas nationally
- AHB sector that can and wishes to do more
- Strong partnerships across delivery agents
The AHB sector can do more in this area and we are encouraged by the priority given to the care and support categories of AHB housing delivery in the AHB Strategic Forum Report, as well as priority focus on housing for older people, ending homelessness and supporting disabled people to access housing noted in Delivering Homes, Building Communities. We look forward to discussing this more.
Click here to read the full statement – ICSH statement to Oireachtas Housing Committee – Special Needs Housing and Supported Housing