Community Development needed and not posturing says Úna Dunphy of People Before Profit
Articles relevant to Waterford appeared in two national newspapers this week. Neither showed the City in a positive light.
The first in the Irish Times reports on the European Committee of Social Rights which says that:
**“**The human rights of local authority tenants and of Travellers continue to be violated by inadequate housing..”
Úna Dunphy of PBP responded: “We are in a housing crisis. Much of this will not be news, but it is far from the first warning of an Irish violation. Recurring evidence compiled by this agency has returned similar violations. Audits in 2015 and 2017 also found Ireland in breach of Article 16 of the Charter which says:
“the family as a fundamental unit of society has the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection to ensure its full development”, including the “provision of family housing.”
The findings which will be addressed to the Irish Government on Wednesday, also highlight the disproportionately high number of Traveller Families who are homeless:
“with Traveller children comprising 12 per cent of the homeless children residing in emergency accommodation despite Travellers only comprising 1 per cent of the population”.
Which leads us to the second article in the Irish Examiner, entitled,
“Waterford Traveller group criticise decision to reject accommodation for halting site”
This is in reaction to the decision of 14 Councillors, to reject a Council proposal to regularise the overcrowding situation faced in just one of the under-developed housing sites for Travellers in Waterford. Only two Councillors voted in favour. The Traveller spokespeople request that a National Body come to oversee the delivery of Traveller housing in Waterford, due to the repeated outcomes which show:
“the local authority can’t meet their responsibility” to provide Traveller accommodation.
“If I am not mistaken”, continues Úna Dunphy, “Waterford Council, for the first time, in 2019 spent their allocated funds for Traveller accommodation. It appears now that we have not, however, turned any corners, with a massive majority of Councillors showing blatant electioneering over their duty to the needs of Waterford citizens.
It is also a concern that again, in the provision of services for the disadvantaged, Waterford Governance has to be called to account by national and international watchdogs. This is worrying, in that doing the right thing is seen as a choice; how we distribute funding earmarked for specific groups, how we tick boxes (or not) to funding streams, but fail to account, oversee and audit how this money is spent and how the targets are met.
We need Community Development over posturing, we need to follow best practice and constantly question whether we are achieving what we have set out to achieve. This involves strong community buy-in and social inclusion at a level we are nowhere near yet. Our Local Government needs to listen to and understand all in our communities, and not just those who will bestow votes”.