THE HOUSING CRISIS did not happen by accident.
It’s not some kind of natural disaster that’s beyond our control or impervious to intervention. Yet the government has continuously feigned helplessness as the crisis has taken hold of cities, towns and villages in every corner of the country.
It’s a crisis that exacerbates all the other issues the country is facing. As long as the housing crisis continues, statutory wage increases do little to resuscitate the bank accounts of working people who lose a significant cut of their wages each month.
The money extracted from renters in Ireland to line the pockets of landlords could be softening the cost-of-living crisis and countering the impact of rising fuel costs.
It’s a crisis that has spread like wildfire and will continue to blaze until we abandon the collective delusion that it’ll burn itself out eventually.
A leisurely response
Low-hanging fruit has been presented to the government, providing easy opportunities to take moderate steps that offer meagre but meaningful relief, without scaring off our FDI overlords.
Last week, Holly Cairns pointed out that even Fáilte Ireland and Airbnb welcomed the government’s proposed 2022 regulations for short-term lets, which could free up 12,000 homes for renters in Ireland. Four years later, these rules have not been enacted.
According to Threshold, short-term lets outnumber long-term rentals by 4:1. There are innumerable regulatory levers that could resolve this issue quickly, but there has been no rush to address our housing emergency. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have sat on their hands, letting even the most palatable of policy options pass by.
Simultaneously, the number of children in emergency accommodation continues to climb, while the country’s Gaeltacht regions are being gutted by short-term lets. Addressing the issue of short-term lets is the very least that can be done right now. In the long-term, however, it amounts to little more than putting pressure on a wound that you have no intention of treating. These are not the measures that are going to save us in the long run.
Aspiring for more
The only real way out of the housing crisis is through the introduction of a state construction company and the reinvigoration of public housing in Ireland. It’s an ambitious idea, but it is not impossible.
Since the release of the 1926 census, Dubliners have seen how their grandparents went from living in the city’s tenements to being housed in newly built suburban neighbourhoods in the space of a decade. If we could achieve this against the backdrop of the 1930s Anglo-Irish Trade War, then it’s not an outlandish proposal for today’s world. There are significantly more resources at our disposal now than there were 100 years ago.
Often, we see the concept of a state construction company shot down by concerns about hiring and mobilising a large workforce. Again, in the 1920s, when Ireland’s economy was nowhere near as strong as it is today, we managed to set up the ESB. The ESB came after 40 years of inefficient, disconnected and expensive attempts to introduce electricity to the island in a substantial way, when people were still manually churning their butter and using oil lamps to illuminate their homes.
In just two years, from 1927 to 1929, the Board managed to hire and deploy 829 workers. Many of these individuals would have required specialist knowledge and skills to take on the massive task of bringing electricity to the entire country (another significant achievement, given that education was far less accessible back then than it is today). To make great strides for future generations, Ireland’s housing ambitions have to be as lofty as those of ESB.
Another argument against the case for a state construction company and a return to public housing is the cost.
If anything, a state construction company could keep costs under control, rather than exposing us to exploitative tender processes that extract wealth from the state. By cultivating more stringent state expertise and oversight, we can end the era of exorbitant public spending on bike shelters and children’s hospitals.
After all, it is private developers who are capitalising most on the existing system. When it comes to housing, there is no incentive for private developers to make things more affordable. If house prices drop, so too do their profits.
If the building needs of the country were centralised within a state building company, the government would have far greater bargaining power when it comes to buying materials, as it would buy its supplies in larger quantities. With a state construction company, there are also huge incentives for participation.
Who wouldn’t trade a decade of public service (either through construction itself, or in the logistical coordination done behind the scenes), in order to ensure they are safe from the threat of eviction in the long-term? As local councils face backlash for the introduction of rent hikes, an increased supply of public housing represents a greater opportunity to increase revenue than squeezing existing tenants more tightly.
Even those who do not avail of public housing will benefit from the increased supply of housing, as it has a knock-on effect on the private market, making houses more affordable and accessible.
The benefits are there for pretty much everyone, except those who hoard property for profit and exploit the desperation of Ireland’s renters. We know from previous public housing projects that it is a measure that works, which is more than we can say for any of the other half-baked schemes the government have toyed with.
If we can genuinely indulge frivolous ideas, like the proposed introduction of €29 million moving sculptures, there is no reason why the public cannot push the mass development of public housing onto the government’s agenda. It’s the only way out of this crisis.
Kelly Earley is a writer and podcaster from Coolock, who has a deep interest in culture, technology, community and social justice. She writes for The Journal every week.