OPINION: With local elections due next year, and a possible general election also likely, the public should demand that local representatives support the call to include the right to adequate housing in the Irish Constitution, writes Killarney Social Democrats representative John O’Shea (pictured)
THE ongoing housing and rental crisis affects everyone: young workers who must spend up to half of their monthly income on rent and those who are forced to live in cramped conditions, sharing rooms in overcrowded apartments and houses.
High rental costs prevent young couples from saving the deposit required to attain a mortgage and buy their first family home. There are as many as 10,000 people living in emergency accommodation which was originally designed for short-term emergencies, but nowadays, the use of this temporary fix seems to be the prevailing long term solution. Housing action teams and services across the country are at breaking point, as they try to ensure that the most vulnerable among us are kept off the streets.
The crisis affects local businesses, such as shops and restaurants, as extortionate rental prices leave renters with less disposable income to spend in the local economy. The crisis affects people who must commute further to work as sourcing adequate and affordable accommodation in large towns and cities is no longer feasible. Longer commutes affect the quality of family life and unnecessary commuting also has a negative impact on the environment.
The crisis does not impact everyone equally, however, and some members of our society are actually benefiting from the ongoing housing shortage. Landlords have never had it so good, as rental prices are higher today than those recorded at the height of the boom in I would ask the electorate to consider what role your chosen elected representative has played during the housing crisis and whether or not the individual that you have voted for is benefiting from the ongoing crisis.
In my view, there are basic needs such as food and water, healthcare, education and housing that are vital to all and necessary for each one of us to attain a basic yet dignified existence. These lifelines are far too important to be left solely in the hands of the market and speculators. We need to shore up the functions and role of the State and acknowledge the failings and limitations of the market with regards to providing an adequate supply of affordable accommodation for the people living in this country.
The only way that civil society can ensure that we have a right to a home is to enact laws that will allow citizens to hold its government to account, when it fails to use State resources in an adequate and equitable fashion. To do this we will require a civil society led social movement, organised with the aim of amending the Irish Constitution.
The right to housing already exists and can be found in the United Nations International Covenant on Economical Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), ratified by the Irish parliament in 1989. The right to housing can be explained as the right to adequate housing, which means that the State is responsible to ensure that affordable housing is available to all of its citizens, contingent on all available State resources.
Significantly, this does not mean that everyone should be provided with social housing, rather it means that social housing should be available to those who need it. This obligation does not fall short at merely providing temporary shelter or emergency accommodation as we have witnessed in recent times. It should be considered, in general terms, to mean that housing should be available to the public to purchase and should be commensurate with income levels and at a level that does not compromise other basic needs.
People should not have to make financial choices between paying the rent or buying food, or getting access to healthcare or buying books for school, and the government is responsible for managing the housing market.
Next year, we will have local elections and a possible general election. If you are like me and want to see an end to the current housing crisis, and prevent such crises from reoccurring in the future, you should demand that your local representative supports the call to include the right to adequate housing in the Irish Constitution, and together we can hold our government to account for its actions.
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