From top: Homeless protest last night in Dublin; Anne-Marie McNally
Seventy three families a month are becoming homeless.
You don’t get to abandon an entire cohort of people and not feel the brunt of that both societally and economically.
Anne-Marie McNally writes:
Housing is a human right. It’s one of the most basic rights enshrined in various international charters and treaties across the world:
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 5 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
Article XI (11) of the American Declaration on Rights and Duties of Man
The fundamental right to shelter should ensure a safe, habitable, secure and affordable home for everyone in society. Most of the charters and treaties articulate the point that this right to shelter/housing must be provided to all persons irrespective of income or access to economic resources.
Yet here in Ireland we seem to view basic housing provision as some sort of luxury that is the preserve of those capable of providing it for themselves.
Yesterday our Taoiseach stood in the Dáil, on what was the first anniversary of Jonathan Corrie’s tragic death just yards from the front gate of the same Dáil, and told opposition leaders that we didn’t have the resources needed to tackle our housing and homelessness crisis, that we’ve now committed all we can and that now it’s time for the private sector to step up its building processes.
A couple of thousand social/Nama units stretched over another decade or so, that’s the extent of the ‘social’ housing provision.
This is not a crisis, it’s a national emergency.
Yesterday evening I took to the streets of the capital along with others from across the political spectrum, volunteer groups, and various unions to protest against the current inhumane system which allows human beings to be abandoned to the streets with little more than a sleeping bag – if they’re lucky.
Speakers on the stage ranged from those struggling under the weight of addiction, those who had run from abusive relationships with only the clothes on their back and those who simply could not keep up with the pace of rent increases, all articulating a similar take of despair and hopelessness.
There is an unfortunate narrative that pervades people’s thinking regarding those they see on the streets. There is a generally held assumption that all these people have some form of addiction – be it alcohol or some other substance.
While there can be no denying that is true for a huge number of those on our streets, it is not true for all of them and nor is it a reason to simply look the other way. Think of the children in hostels tonight, or on the third different couch they’ve slept on that week, watching while their parents fret and exist as a ball of stress and desperation.
The same fears, anxieties and sense of insecurity that those children are feeling were felt by those people currently struggling with addiction issues – the escapism they sought manifested as the addiction they’re now burdened with.
Society has a responsibility in that regard…we have a responsibility in that regard. By standing in the chamber and telling us that we don’t have the resources to deal with the housing emergency now, what Enda is doing is gifting a plethora of societal problems and economic expenses to the next administration, the one after it and the one after that as the children of today’s failed policies become the adults of tomorrow on the streets or suffering with mental illness issues, or addictions.
You don’t get to abandon an entire cohort of people – 73 families a month are now becoming homeless – and not feel the brunt of that both societally and economically. Actions may have consequences but so too does inaction and those consequences are hurtling down the tracks at us.
It’s not enough to say we don’t have any more resources. We have to find the resources. Loud announcements by Alan Kelly are nothing more than words. He won’t be around in the timeframe his measures require. The HAP system (Housing Assistance Payment) that he’s pumping what money there is for housing into is little more than a form of privitisation of social housing.
The only way to solve this emergency is to increase supply now. Look to Nama units, look to vacant units, and ultimately, and simultaneously, build large scale social housing. It has been done before in times of greater hardship than now, it’s not beyond our capabilities but unfortunately right now, it is beyond the political will of the establishment and that right there is the problem.
Anne-Marie McNally is a political and media strategist working with Catherine Murphy TD and will be a candidate for the Social Democrats in the forthcoming General Election. Follow Anne-Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally
Pay your bills.
…says a stooge of the criminal banking class.
They are. What’s your point?
Waffle, is that comment aimed at the property developers who owe the state billions in bail out money paid to banks to clear their loans?
is it aimed at the white collar tax dodgers who bleed the country of billions each ear and have the temerity to demonise those on social welfare?
Is it aimed at businessmen who use their private jets to move cash offshore and drugs into the country?
Is it aimed at international corporations who pay a pittance in tax?
Is it aimed at business owners who do all in their power to avoid capital gains tax?
Is it aimed at slum landlords who let their properties fall into decline instead of paying for their upkeep while they lounge in their country pile surrounded by excess?
I assumed it was aimed at the homeless….
It’s mostly aimed at those who aren’t paying their rent or mortgage upkeep – and then come on here whining that everybody is out to get them.
TT
You sure showed them!
Waffle, if ever a poster was well named…
It’s an absolute disgrace. It’s even more difficult when you think of the huge amount of empty and half finished houses and apartments scattered around the country. This really comes down to political will. Any other country in a similar position would’ve tapped into these auxiliary properties, it’s not even progressive! It’s one thing seeing a broken individual having to live like this but having children in this position doesn’t even bear thinking about.
Will…. and money. And even with both of those the current government has to have the ability to use the right avenues to resolve the situation, which they lack.
…except a lot of the half-finished houses and estates are in the middle of nowhere. And people want to live close to friends and family.
It’s interesting that if you’re from Dublin and are hardworking and want to buy a house it is somehow acceptable to move to one of the various commuter towns in the surrounding counties. But if you are reliant on the state for housing you can *demand* to live near where you grew up, even if that is in the city centre.
You know, if I were in a situation where I was without a home, I don’t think I would turn down a house because it’s nowhere near family and friends, if it meant that I could have a chance at somewhere safe for me and my daughter. If it gave me the opportunity to get back to a position where I could find work, have some safety and stability for my child. It’s not ideal, I understand that, but it is a desperate situation and there are no perfect solutions. This would give people homes now, not in 2017.
Blame the immigrants. It’s an unpopular view but studies have shown that immigration makes life worse for the lowest class of natives and this is one example of that.
‘The lowest class of natives’ WOW. Just WOW.
don’t go there Ammo, he’s class clown
What studies are these exactly?
Hi Joni, I presume you mean Irish people that are materially poor/lacking opportunity for education and housing? Not having a go at you.
I’m sure he does mean that cohort of people who are “materially poor/lacking opportunity for education”, yep
Well we’d best call all of those highly trained and well educated young people of Ireland home then. You know, all of those Irish immigrants in Canada and Australia. Presumably they are causing the huge inequality in the USA.
“lacking opportunity for education ” doesn’t apply to anyone in this Country.
I mentioned education as an example of reduced opportunity – maybe could have picked a more apposite one? – but it was only in service of trying to parse Joni’s post.
I dunno. In theory maybe.
But if you’re a sixteen year old about to go into 5th year and living with your family in hotel accommodation/B&B’s the incentive would be to get out and work I think, non?
This is a Republic where powerful commercial interests always seem to trump any national requirement of it’s citizens. If the homeless were cattle or a foreign tax avoision company, there would be an resolution found quicker than a photographers flash.
Speculators are a cancer, hundreds of empty buildings in Dublin, going to ruin, waiting for the ‘Morket’ to get up to level stupid. The old motor tax office on chancery st is empty, huge and had 3 homeless people sleeping on the steps this morning. F*ck the speculators.
Ye, sure ye can’t even buy the empty houses mentioned by someone above.
I need a house to buy but prices where I am are gone stupid but there’s 100s of apartments and houses nearby not finished. Joke.
Sorry, America is a Republic. Ireland is a Democratic Republic. In name anyway….. such a pity our dear leaders dont know the difference.
Sorry, America is a continent. The United States of America is a republic in the manner of your comment.
Sorry, America may have gained weight since Ugly Betty ended but she’s hardly a continent in the manner of your comment.
“Two elderly men come to a soup kitchen in town. Dressed in their Sunday best, the men take their seats in the hall and eat three full dinners each one after another. It later transpires that the men, aged in their 70s, had not eaten in four days.”
http://traleetoday.ie/soup-kitchen/
just to be pedantic, if you hadn’t eaten in 4 days i sincerely doubt your ability to eat 3 full dinners….
If you read the history of the state from the beginning you’ll understand why no government has ever tried to create a more fair and balanced society.
Our society has been engineered to be unequal in order to keep the professions controlled as cartels by a select social class. It’s done through selective education and government social policy. Even if someone from a working class family goes through college and becomes say a solicitor (which is rare), that person will still be excluded from higher end decision making because their interests will not serve the cartel .
All senior civil servants know this and all current and former ministers know it too.
The only people who say this isn’t true and use the old tin foil hat comments are the same people who are actively involved in it.
It is true. it’s also true that we’ve never had a social democratic government like our continental neighbours.
So, you can continue to moan about it. Or you can start making a change and vote SocDem.
Any particular historian or book you would recommend?
Well said. It chills the blood a bit, doesn’t it…
What a heap of arrogant crap. “All senior civil servants know this and all current and former ministers know it too.” I fail to believe, and indeed I know, that this is incorrect.
“The only people who say this isn’t true and use the old tin foil hat comments are the same people who are actively involved in it.” In other words, “if you question me on this you know I’m right and are hiding it”.
There is massive difference between actively supporting an oppressive hierarchical demographic system (communism) and being complacent with it (Irish democracy).
would you like to provide any evidence at all to support that?
you’re talking complete paranoid rubbish
So why did Fine Gael’s promise of reform of the legal sector not proceed?
Why are so many doctors & solicitors children of doctors and solicitors?
Why can’t a pharmacist open his/her own retail unit wherever they want to?
Mostly, solicitors’ children do not become solicitors as they realise from an early age what a tough and tedious job it is – and their parents do their best to steer them in another direction.
Thats sounds like conspiracy theory bullplop. the Irish Governments historical corruption and ineptitude has been entirely driven by Greed, Money, CASH!!
“Rampant landlordism is dividing Britain into a nation of housing haves and have-nots. Tax breaks for buy-to-lets are still too generous. Tenants are in despair. Many young people will never be able to buy their own home. This, extraordinarily, is not the language of some lefty academic or pressure group, but comes from the heart of the Conservative party in a new report by the Bow Group, the oldest Tory thinktank in the UK, which styles itself as the “intellectual home to conservatives”
TORIES, people, TORIES say that. It must be ruining their earnings. http://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2015/nov/21/foreign-buyers-british-property
What’s your point? Property prices in the UK are comparable to Ireland, with the exception of London. In fact, when you look at property prices across Europe you’ll see that the Irish market is one of the cheaper.
The problem here is supply and income. FG/LAb have driven tax home pay through the floor.
” FG/LAb have driven tax home pay through the floor.”
Could you say that in English? You sound like Enda with his gibberish on minimum wage workers – on 35k, getting back money in their tax returns.
““Rampant landlordism is dividing Britain into a nation of housing haves and have-nots. Tax breaks for buy-to-lets are still too generous. Tenants are in despair. Many young people will never be able to buy their own home.”
Yeah, you see that on those property programmes on the BBC or Channel 4 or whatever.. the likes of Sarah Beeny.. people who’ve amassed 50 – 100 properties.
Ireland IS A JOKE! Its a run like an Accountants bureaucracy not really a country. The people are pawns, the Government have taken on ALL of the worst ideas from the US. When banks are too big to fail the pawns will have to bail them out. The college graduates have to endure 1 to 3 years of slavery (internships) before they are granted a low paid entry level job. Healthcare is appalling and expensive, tax breaks go to the biggest coorporations in the world who set up here, while they use our infrastructure to reap profits. The wealth gap is getting bigger and people have nowhere to live. Admit it, its time for another mass emmigration. Leave them to stew in their sh1t, let the brain drain 2.0 begin
Or stay and change the system. Vote out the uneducated overpaid TDs we’ve continually elected and bring in some fresh faces and fresh thinking.
Then something like this happens and you wonder…where is our basic humanity gone?
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2015/12/02/sleeping-rough-2/
I cannot find a link for the below paragraph. Can you clarify exactly what the Taoiseach said? The only data I can see is https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2015-12-01a.152#g232
“Yesterday our Taoiseach stood in the Dáil,….. that we’ve now committed all we can and that now it’s time for the private sector to step up its building processes.”
‘Housing is a human right. It’s one of the most basic rights enshrined in various international charters and treaties across the world’
not here it’s not. here you are entitled to shelter, not housing. if everyone was entitled to a tenancy it would open one massive,beautiful can of worms.
Shur you’d get shelter under a bus shelter like..
Stray cats and dogs have shelters.
A reasonably comfortable home is another thing.
And how would you feel about giving everyone a reasonable and comfortable home, even those who could afford it? Cos thats what those declarations cant resolve, who gets ‘free’ housing?
I think there are defined thresholds of income for people who want to go on the social housing list.. What is it, 35k salary PA?
Basically, half the country should be getting social housing going on income levels.
At the back of the Irish political establishment in Ireland there is an almost fanatical belief in the free market. Greed is excused when it cannot be hidden. It is presented as a belief which should not be questioned.
Most people are either crippled with mortgages or paying obscene rents just to keep a roof over their heads. And then there are those who cannot keep up at all, those who fall through the large cracks. Amhrán na bhFiann is a song of shame while people die on the streets.
I have great hopes for The Social Democrats. They are a breath of fresh air. Nobody should be homeless. And I don’t mean shelter for one night.
I have high hopes for them too. If they’re looking for volunteers, I’m game.
“At the back of the Irish political establishment in Ireland there is an almost fanatical belief in the free market. Greed is excused when it cannot be hidden. ”
That’s the mantra all right… Can’t interfere with the market as Enda was quoted as saying recently.
David McWilliams had something to say of interest in terms of the ‘free market’ there recently –
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2015/11/02/why-we-need-rent-controls
“The mainstream economics profession and the property/landlord lobby appear to argue that we shouldn’t introduce rent controls because it interferes with the “free market” or the status quo. But this is silly because the market isn’t free; it is rigged at every stage and the “status quo” doesn’t deliver stability but delivers massive instability.
If we really want a free market in housing, we should scrap all tax breaks to property, stop allowing debt interest costs to be deducted from tax liabilities, stop any tax incentive into any form of building, introduce “use it or lose it” schemes in planning, introduce “non-recourse” mortgages and address a whole variety of other legacy interventions in this most tampered with market.”
Given this is another party political broadcast for the SocDems, why hasn’t the author provided/suggested solutions other than “find resources” and “look to vacant units”.
SocDems alternative 2016 budget
They propose investing an incremental 300mm for capital investment in this space. That would cover about 1,700 units max.
They allocate 20mm for reducing the 8% vacancy rate in Dublin – no details provided. How would u do this?
You’d allocate 25mm to senior citizens in social housing to ask them to move to smaller units “only if they wanted”. So you’d bribe them to move out of houses too big for them.
Very little details in your budget proposal and it’s not as radical as one might expect given you claim this to be a “National Emergency”
Should we expect weekly political broadcasts from this candidate on broadsheet?