Such bodies must be approved by the Department of the Environment and Local Government in order to qualify for financial and other aid for the provision of housing. A minimum of three quarters of the houses provided in each project under this scheme are reserved for people whose applications for local authority housing have been approved by the local authority, homeless persons, or tenants or tenant purchasers of local authority houses who return their dwellings to the local authority. The remaining houses are let to persons nominated by the voluntary body but, in practice, they are generally let to people approved for local authority housing. Rental Subsidy Scheme Rental subsidy scheme houses are let to approved applicants for local authority housing. In determining rents under this scheme, voluntary housing bodies are expected to have regard to the tenants' means and the cost of providing and maintaining the dwellings after allowing for the substantial funding that has been provided by the State.
Rents are therefore below market rents.
Assistance towards the rent of these dwellings may be available under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme operated by the local Health Board. Your rent under this scheme is directly related to your ability to pay taking into account household earnings and circumstances. Additional rent is payable if a person who has an income, and is not the tenant the tenant's spouse or joint tenant resides in the house. Rents may be reduced if you produce satisfactory evidence of a fall in income and of the likelihood of the fall lasting for at least four weeks. All voluntary housing schemes are managed and maintained by the organisation providing the housing.