Government has shelved comprehensive plan for housing, says union chief

A leading trade unionist has accused the Government of shelving the comprehensive Housing Commission report, claiming that the group has been “disbanded”.

Organisations from different sectors, representing housing groups, trade unions, and business groups, joined together to advocate for the extensive 200-page report.

Organised by Focus Ireland, the groups urged all political parties to make the report central to their election manifestos.

Owen Reidy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said housing is a “systematic failure” in the state.

He said that ICTU represents about 750,000 workers across the island of Ireland, adding that there is “not one person” who is unaffected by the housing crisis.

“I think the one thing we can all agree on is that the Housing Commission report is a very significant piece of work,” he said.

“It’s a very important piece of work and it deserves to be respected, to be interrogated, to be illuminated, to be discussed and debated, not just in the Dail, but through civic society.

“I think there’s something wrong in governance when a government of the day goes out of its way to set up a commission, to bring a cast of many people from different perspectives, different expertise together, to put the amount of work that they put into it and to come to a broad consensus, and then to essentially ignore it, to disband the commission.

“I think that’s quite frankly unacceptable.

“Housing is going to be a crucial issue in the campaign, and the issue at the next general election, and this Government and the next government needs to engage on the work of the Housing Commission with all of us, with a renewed energy for us, it’s as simple as this.”

Those present included IBEC, which is a business representative group, as well as the Irish Council for Social Housing, Simon Communities, Threshold, the Irish Wheelchair Association and Alone.

They called for a consistent and long-term housing strategy, as well as a 20% social and cost rental housing stock.

Aidan Sweeney, head of infrastructure and and sustainability at IBEC, called for a reform of capital funding as well as the need for an multi-annual housing budget.

He said: “There’s a lot of fixation about housing numbers and whether or not we’re going to build 40,000 homes and then someone else might say 50,000 homes. Just for the record, we are saying at least 60,000 homes per year.

“But that’s the baseline because the fact is, as you’re doing your demographic projections, there’s such a period of uncertainty.

“The Housing Commission has raised a lot of issues around how we address the housing population targets, where they should be building, and how do we actually zone up adequately for that. Those need to be factored into the NPF (National Planning Framework) thinking.”

Alibhe McLoughlin, director of policy at the Irish Council for Social Housing, agreed with the commission report, that the social housing stock should be increased to 20%, adding that there should be more mechanisms in place to achieve the target.

The current social housing stock accounts for about 9% to 10%.

Wayne Stanley, executive director at Simon Communities, said: “I was always concerned that the (Commission) project would be too unwieldy (and) too political to succeed in producing a workable plan that will live beyond any given government. I think I was wrong.

“The commissioners worked so hard to come to a consensus, and also the breadth of the report speaks to a completeness as it looks at the fault lines of the housing system. That means that it can live well.”

He said that there is a need for a comprehensive approach to homelessness and the trauma of experiencing homelessness.

“Homelessness is driven by the housing crisis, and its solutions are in delivering more secure, affordable homes,” he added.

“We view homelessness in Ireland through the monthly homeless figures, and they are indicative of how the state is doing.

“But it can also mask the true or more complicated reality of homelessness. The Simon Communities have taken a lot of time to try and understand the nature of what’s termed hidden homelessness.

“Hidden homelessness and housing exclusion are a national issue.”

Ann-Marie O’Reilly, the national advocacy manager at Threshold, agreed, saying that the report should be used as a “blueprint” for housing policy into the future.

Mike Allen, director of advocacy at Focus Ireland, said there were two ways of looking at homelessness.

“You can either look at homelessness by looking at the people who experience it and the human frailties that they very often have, and say that homelessness is caused because of mental health issues or addiction issues, or somebody’s a lone parent, or because they’re disabled or because they’re foreign.

“That is the reason for homelessness, and that is the reason why they are homeless. Or you can look at it in the point of view and say, those who have particular human frailties are maybe the reason why that person is experiencing homelessness.

“But the reason there is homelessness at all is because we don’t have enough homes for everyone that needs one.”

The Department of Housing has been contacted for comment.