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Why Public Housing is the Answer

Eoin Ó Broin

• Publisher: Merrion Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781785372650
• eBook ISBN: 9781785372674
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

Thousands are homeless, tens of thousands are languishing on social housing waiting lists, even more are unable to afford to rent or buy. Why is our housing system so dysfunctional? Why can it not meet social and affordable housing needs?

Home: Why Public Housing is the Answer examines the structural causes of our housing emergency, provides a detailed critique of government housing policy from the 1980s to the present and outlines a comprehensive, practical and radical alternative that would meet the housing needs of the many, not just the few.

For three decades Government policy has been marked by an undersupply of social housing and an over-reliance on the private market to meet housing needs. Housing has become a commodity, not a public good. The result is a dysfunctional housing system that is leaving more and more people unable to access appropriate, secure and affordable homes.

The answer, as argued in this transformative new book, lies in establishing a Constitutional right to housing, large scale investment in a new model of public housing to meet social and affordable housing need, real reform of the private rental sector and regulation of private finance, development and land.

Index

1926 census, the, 24

1946 census, the, 33

1970s as the high point in housing provision, the, 38, 45, 46

affordable housing, 168–9; and affordability criteria, 71, 160–1, 169–70, 197; and allocation restrictions, 131, 178; and not-for-profit rental accommodation, 72

Affordable Housing Scheme, the, 79, 126

affordable purchase housing model, 162–3

agrarian unrest and the land wars, 15

AHBs (Approved Housing Bodies), 58, 60, 86, 89–90, 104, 172, 174, 207; and housing provision, 62–3, 78, 88, 103, 118; reclassification into the Government sector, 119, 166, 175–6

Allen, Mike, 99

Ally, 42

amendment proposals to the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, 113

Analysis of Current Expenditure on Housing Supports (report), 138

apartment construction regulation, 129–30

Apollo House occupation by Home Sweet Home, 111

apprentice programmes and building skills, 201–2

Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act (1882), 16

asset-based welfare era, the, 44, 56, 143–4

asylum seekers and Direct Provision, 237, 238

austerity budgets, 82

Bacon reports, the, 75

bailout and the Troika, the, 82

BCAR (Building Control Amendment Regulations), 211

BCMS (Government Building Control Management System), 210, 211, 212

BER energy ratings, 228, 229

Bevan, Aneurin (Nye), 32, 246–50, xvi

Blackwell, John, 56

Blair, Tony, 250

Blaney, Neil, 37

Brexit contingency plan, 202

British housing bubble, the, 55

Buchanan Report (1968), the, 37

building contractors and political patronage, the, 29, 45, 215

Building Control, 209–10, 212, 214

Safe as Houses: A Report on Building Standards, Building Control and Consumer Protection 130

building cooperatives (see Public Utility Societies)

building materials and consumer protection, 208–14

building practices and reduced st...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Author Biography
• The World Turned Upside-Down
• Advance Praise For Home
• Title Page
• Democratic Programme
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Deficiencies and Terminology
• Preface
• Overture
• MOVEMENT ONE
• MOVEMENT TWO
• MOVEMENT THREE
• Coda
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index