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