No Room at the Inn
``Dublin's housing crisis has become a nightmare,'' says Dublin Sinn
Féin Councillor Christy Burke. People are still finding themselves in
hostel accommodation with young children, where fathers must make
alternative arrangements, or in B&B accommodation where mothers with
kids, without money, must walk the streets all day. They are waiting
18 months to two years for a place to live. Landlords have been let
use all kinds of bully boy tactics.''
``There are 2,500 people walking the streets in Dublin, sleeping rough,
in doorways, in cardboard boxes, on balconies in the flats. In
addition, there are at least 6,000 to 7,000 people who aren't even
registered because it's pointless. There is no accommodation. One in
five of the people who sleep in doorways, according to an ESRI
Homeless Initiative survey last September, is under 20 years old.''
At last week's Dublin Council meeting, the Sinn Féin councillors
successfully proposed that Junior Minister Bobby Molloy, Minister of
State for Housing and Urban Renewal, address the City Council and
announce his plans to deal with the crisis.
So last Wednesday, Molloy held a press conference, with the council
and the Estern Health Board, to announce the good news that there were
to be 112 new hostel places for Dublin's homeless, and a £5 million
two-year plan, already announced in the budget, for two separate
hostels for those with drug and alcohol addiction problems.
City Manager John Fitzgerald, added that the joint programme was part
of a `zero tolerance' approach to homelessness. ``How dare they,''
exclaims Christy, ``when thousands of homeless people have been in this
city for at least the past five years, despite our endless resolutions
in the council to recognise the seriousness of the crisis. ``
The Corporation is appointing `outreach' services to target people
sleeping rough on the street, including `resettlement officers' aiming
to move people to `longer term and appropriate facilities', and
`co-ordinators', who are to be appointed to implement
`anti-ghettoisation' policies.
``These new job prospects look like little else than jobs to ship the
homeless out of the city altogether, and allow rural B&B owners to
enjoy some of the £18 per person, per night, subsidies available from
the government.
Christy, supported by the newly elected Sinn Féin councillors, has
initiated measures in the council, for Dublin's North Inner City, to
tackle the problem.
``We have called on church leaders of all denominations to enter into
negotiations with the council for the release of church lands. We're
talking about properties like Clonliffe College, Drumcondra, or the
huge mansion and grounds, belonging to the Salinas Order in Crumlin.
In the immediate term, emergency hostel accommodation, with decent
facilities, has got to be provided, for the thousands who are
homeless, on the streets. There is no acceptable reason why this
hasn't been done.''
In the longer term, Christy is convinced, things are changing.
There is the North Inner City Integrated Area Plan (NICIAP), for which
£100 million funding came on stream last June. The plan includes the
demolition of Mountain View Court, Landon House, St. Judes Gardens,
and the refurbishment of Liberty House, and the building of town
houses with gardens front and back. St Joseph's Mansions is to be
detenanted, with housing and small industrial units built in
conjunction with the St. Pancras Housing Association.
The Community College in Sean McDermott Street, opening in the New
Year, will provide educational resources for the whole area, including
sports, recreation, adult education. Money is set aside to provide
child care and to train and employ local people to run the centres.
``These are crucial in what is a redevelopment of the whole area in
terms of housing, jobs, training and education,'' says Christy.
``Builders are now compelled under EU directives to take on local
people, to train people in the skills through the Local Employment
Services (LES) and to guarantee the provision of long-term jobs. The
days of builders providing a few odd security jobs are long gone.''
``The NICIAP has been possible because of consistent and strong
organisation of the whole community, through the Inner City
Organisation Network, (ICON), and through the concerned parents'
activities of the previous decade, when communities began to organise
themselves and to realise their power. None of this would have
happened without the involvement of community organisations.
``The development of Sheriff Street flats, where now you've women's
centres, community centres, FAS, and housing development, shows the
way. When Harry Crosbie, well known `redeveloper' in the City, said on
the Late Late show one evening last June that `the people of Sheriff
Street eat their young', the community marched on his door demanding
an apology. It shows how things have moved on.''
``Meanwhile, the conditions in emergency accommodation have got to be
changed right now,'' says Christy. ``Nelson Street was a disaster
waiting to happen.'' Last month there was a fire in a house in NIC's
Nelson Street, where 35 people were living. The windows, front and
back, had mesh screens, the back door had a steel grill. ``It was a
miracle that people weren't burnt to death, it was only because of the
response of the residents themselves. The house was packed out, even
children. I personally stood with a 10-day-old baby in my arms. We've
learned nothing from the Stardust.''
``As a result, the council has now agreed to what I have been fighting
to get over the years, an inspectorate of all emergency accommodation.
A section has been set up between the Corpo, the EHB, the Fire
Department and the Corporation's Planning department, where all
emergency accommodation has to be inspected. It's a beginning.
``This has now to be extended to private rented accommodation. Many
landlords and properties aren't registered, and their tenants have no
rights. 100% rent increases, at a moment's notice, are not unusual and
all standards of accommodation, health and safety have been breached.
``The Inland Revenue has to work with the Corporation to ensure the
registration of properties. If the law does not allow the Local
Authorities to enforce the registration requirement or the imposition
of fines on landlords who do not register, then it is simply a day's
work by the Environment minister to introduce a statutory instrument
to correct the anomaly.
``Once we have a register, then standards can be enforced, inspections
can be carried out, tenants' rights protected, and a control put on
rent increases and evictions. If there was the political will, it
could be done in a week. There isn't.
``If the political will existed, the will to work with the communities,
Dublin could become a nice place for everyone to live in.''
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)