The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a type of social housing assistance available to those who have a long-term housing problem of being at risk homeless or are already homeless. The HAP system was originally introduced in 2014 and spread out in 2017, to other counties in Ireland.  HAP is used to replace the Rent Supplement and also people on Hap lose their chances of getting their forever social housing. For each county, they are different rent caps also based on the number of individuals in the household. The rent is paid directly to the landlords and the tenant is to pay a weekly top-up to the local authorities based on their income assessment.

The aim of this research is to;

• To evaluate the HAP system including its eligibility criteria and conditions
• To assess the role of HAP in addressing housing needs within the rental market
• To evaluate the impact of the hap system on the current housing crisis