At a press conference on the Dáil plinth today, following the Easter recess, People Before Profit have said that the government must take radical measures, which it has so far refused to take, to simultaneously tackle the housing crisis and the refugee crisis.
In a letter to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien last week Richard Boyd Barrett TD outlined a number of measures the government could take, including a ban on evictions and the deployment of emergency powers to acquire vacant properties and the requisition of a much higher proportion than the current 10% of new builds for social and affordable housing.
The TD also questioned why emergency measures that have rightly been taken to help Ukrainian refugees had not been taken before the war to solve the housing crisis?
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said: “Last week, I sent a letter to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien outlining a number of measures which People Before Profit believe the government should take to both house Ukrainian refugees and also to help resolve the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis. It is imperative that we implement measures such as these to address the housing crisis but also simultaneously deal with and house Ukrainian refugees coming into this country due to Putin’s murderous invasion and war in Ukraine.
“The big question is now whether the government is genuinely willing to deploy the emergency measures needed, and ignore the market considerations, in order to resolve the chronic housing and homelessness emergency and accommodate refugees fleeing here. It is possible to have a win-win situation here and both solve our dire housing crisis and accommodate refugees fleeing war.”
Measures proposed by Richard Boyd Barrett TD and People Before Profit in a letter to Minister O’Brien include:
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Emergency measures need to be introduced/deployed to bring all vacant, empty, derelict, over the shop, and under-construction properties, both publicly and privately owned, into use for all those without accommodation, both those from Ukraine and Irish residents affected by the homelessness and housing crisis.
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All evictions must be halted immediately. It makes absolutely no sense to allow evictions on the grounds of sale or refurbishment given the current scale of the housing/accommodation crisis.
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Immediately establish an affordable rents system of rent controls, to bring down rents, where rents are set at an affordable level, based on guideline rent of no more than one-third of average incomes, possibly with some adjustments from that baseline based on the square meterage of any given property.
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Establish a state construction/public works corp to be scaled up as quickly as possible to a state construction company to provide the state with its own capacity and workforce to accelerate refurbishments and construction of suitable properties both for long term public and affordable housing and emergency accommodation. A very public recruitment campaign for construction workers/tradespeople to be commenced immediately for jobs in this corp/company.
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For the government to acquire a much higher proportion than the current 10% of new builds for social and affordable housing.