100 signatures reached
To: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council
Campaign for Public Housing - Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
We demand:
- A large-scale public housing programme
- Raise the income limit for the housing list
- Rents linked to income
- Develop vacant and derelict properties for the community
- Increased and reliable housing maintenance
We also demand that the council utilises the 'Cost Rental Tenant in Situ' scheme to buy 200 houses this year off of landlords who are selling. The council has a blank cheque book for this, but no targets.
See https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting-a-home/cost-rental-tenant-in-situ-scheme/
Why is this important?
CATU Ireland is a union for communities and tenants. That means renters, council tenants, mortgage holders, and people in emergency and precarious living situations. The current housing crisis is a result of government policy designed to benefit speculators, landlords and vulture funds. But housing doesn't have to be in crisis.
Public housing is the solution.
3,917 households are on the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County housing list, yet the council built only 18 houses in 2023. These figures also hide households who make more than the income limit of €40,000, but who can't afford to rent in DLR where the average rent is now €2,331 per month. The result is that working class families are pushed out of the county.
It doesn't have to be this way. Universal public housing will bring about reduced rents and property prices and force corporate investors out, with many properties becoming vacant and available to be added to our stock. Publicly owned housing will further allow tenants to have more control over their communities through local democracy, rather than an unaccountable profit-driven private sector. It will also mean more sustainable communities, as people will not be evicted at the whim of a landlord seeking to make a greater profit.
It's time to end the landlords' grip and tip the balance of power back to renters. Housing is a human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.