Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/LightField Studios

Opinion 'Housing has been a crisis for disabled people for decades'

We have to change the way we think about housing for disabled people, writes James Cawley.

MY NAME IS James Cawley and I am a wheelchair user. I am one of the thousands of disabled people who live independently in Ireland. I’m married, I work and do the day-to-day things that everyone does, but getting a house that suits my needs has not always been easy.

I know full well that Ireland is currently in the midst of a housing crisis. And I know that some of you reading this might be thinking, sure housing in the current climate is not easy for many, many people.

But housing has been a crisis for disabled people for decades. In all the discussions on housing and homelessness over the years, and over the past few weeks even since the launch of Housing for All, there has been little or no reference or acknowledgement that disabled people have housing rights too.

Even when we had our last building boom in the noughties, when we couldn’t build enough houses, the needs of disabled people just didn’t feature.

We have been completely overlooked and continue to be ignored still, despite our right to “live in the community, with choices equal to other”, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which Ireland has ratified since 2018. It is about equality and fairness and choice, not dependence or charity.

Looking for a rented house that is accessible for a disabled person is like looking for a needle in a haystack. There is absolutely no onus or incentive for landlords to modify properties because Part M building regulations (to ensure accessibility) are weak and outdated.

For disabled people reliant on social housing, living independently is even more difficult.

Lack of supports

For a start, the process of even applying for housing is complex, confusing, different in every county and completely lacking in transparency. If disabled people want to apply for social housing, they have to apply separately to both the local authority for housing and then the HSE for a support package. But there is no clear pathway for supports and very little engagement between the local authority and the HSE.

People are left in an impossible Catch 22 situation whereby those who get the offer of a house and need support to live independently often can’t accept that offer of housing without the support package in place. Lives and futures are caught in the middle of two bureaucratic systems that don’t seem to communicate.

One of those vital independent living supports is a Personal Assistance Service. Unfortunately, there is no legal right to what you would hope and think would be a very basic service.

We know from the recent “Disability Capacity Review to 2032 – A Review of Social Care Demand and Capacity Requirements to 2032” from the Department of Health that just about 2,500 people get a PA service averaging around 12 hours a week.

For the most part, people who require a personal assistance service to live independently are not receiving a service which meets their needs to have choice and control over their lives.

The upshot of this is that high numbers of disabled people are often reliant on their family members or others for accommodation and support. High numbers are ageing in the family home with ageing parents. Many others just give up or don’t even begin to apply for housing in the first place giving a false sense of the real need for housing in our community.

Need for change

We have to change the way we think about housing for disabled people. Yes, we have a housing crisis, but we have a housing crisis that must include the needs of disabled people also.

As a priority, we need to have a fully accessible, central application process where a person can apply for a house and independent living supports together. We need to ensure that at least 7.5% of all new social housing are ring-fenced for disabled people. And then we need to expand how we think about accessibility more broadly.

We need to recognise and reinforce that accessibility is about more than just the ramps and doors and the physical building. It is also about the environment around homes and buildings, like accessible transport which allows disabled people to get to and from their homes, to engage in their communities, education and employment, for example.

In other words, we need to think about building genuinely inclusive communities so that disabled people are not some sub-set of society.

We have a right to live our lives with choice, dignity and respect. At the very heart of this is the right to expect and hope that we can live independently, in an affordable, accessible home that is fit for our purpose.

James Cawley is policy officer with Independent Living Movement Ireland, which is a Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO) and one of the organisations involved in a new national campaign ‘Our Housing Rights’.

VOICES LOGO

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Early Cuyler
    Favourite Early Cuyler
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:13 PM

    The idea that THC is bad also takes away from our understanding and the medicinal potential.

    180
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Record Sunshine
    Favourite Record Sunshine
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:52 PM

    Heaven forbid that cannabis might leave the reefer madness era behind once and for all and be a mainstream product of benefit for millions of people. Keeping people drugged up on legal prescription drugs seems to be perfectly acceptable, though. A smoke definitely does one good after a hefty Christmas dinner, anyway. Celebrations, here I come .

    149
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Karl Charlie
    Favourite Karl Charlie
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:16 PM

    @Record Sunshine: legal prescription drugs make money for big pharma but the suggestion of taking money off them by using cbd is like askin ffg to pay their dail bar bill never gonna happen

    74
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clare McAfee
    Favourite Clare McAfee
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:43 PM

    @Karl Charlie: start taking to the Gov about tax income, more jobs, and votes, and they might listen a little less to pharma industry pressure..

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clare McAfee
    Favourite Clare McAfee
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:40 PM

    No research in this area? Someone had better tell the state of Florida quick. Licenses are applied for to the state, and granted on the basis of scientific research. Several of my friends in the US with chronic pain apply to the state they live in for a licence and a week later are down at the dispensary collecting a medical grade product. Give up the “no research” excuse, chronic pain patients are sick of hearing it.

    112
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Emer Caffrey
    Favourite Emer Caffrey
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 10:15 AM

    @Clare McAfee: just ask the patients who’ve benefited from it when nothing else worked

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Conall
    Favourite Conall
    Report
    Dec 28th 2019, 2:16 AM

    @Emer Caffrey: Individual reports are not a reliable way of determinining the efficacy of a medication. This can only be done through properly designed trials.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Brendan Mullen
    Favourite John Brendan Mullen
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:19 PM

    Headline should read, if we sell CBD/THC the shareholders in the big pharmaceutical companies might receive lower dividends.

    106
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mike Murphy
    Favourite Mike Murphy
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:23 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: that’s the big problem…something you can grow at home can have health benefits that you wont be spending money on prescription drugs the big players dont like that

    72
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Black
    Favourite John Black
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 3:12 PM

    @John Brendan Mullen: the people who hold most of the patents for Cannabis based medicinal products are the big pharmaceutical companies so please remove your tinfoil hat

    6
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vincent McDermott
    Favourite Vincent McDermott
    Report
    Dec 28th 2019, 8:03 AM

    @John Black: Quiet the opposite, pharmaceutical companies have been looking at cannabinoids for years. With stricter regulators in the Pharma industry, safety and efficacy data must be proven. This is not the case with the natural health sector who can make claims for cures without proper research.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mike Murphy
    Favourite Mike Murphy
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:09 PM

    The plant is given to us from the earth…has so many benefits.. why live in 1950s ireland and not legalise it…has so much revenue to be made from it..and on the medical side it helps alot of people

    67
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HearMeNow33
    Favourite HearMeNow33
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 12:20 PM

    @Mike Murphy: You had me on the first line of your comment…. Totally agree.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat Conners
    Favourite Pat Conners
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:35 PM

    I live in the neatherlands.. as everyone knows smoking a joint is tolerated. Outside of the stigma of drug use it is well known in Holland that sufferers of cancer and MS will suffer less as a result of marijuana..THC is what gets you high..CBD is what apparently cures many ailments..this story seems to glorify pharmaceutical cures that are for sure 10fold more expensive than a plant.

    75
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Arragh Sure
    Favourite Arragh Sure
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:08 PM

    Rubbish. If they make cannibas available for pain as it is everywhere else and quit acting like there is no evidence of anything about cannibas they may show some brains as a government. Then again.

    111
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute ihcalaM
    Favourite ihcalaM
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:24 PM

    @Arragh Sure: Yeah but there’s a difference between cannabis being used for pain (legitimately) and the quacks promoting it as a cure for every disease under the Sun.

    82
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Arragh Sure
    Favourite Arragh Sure
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:33 PM

    @ihcalaM: That is true. There is also an acute difference between people suffering and waiting on opiates which is the issue here. Not as acute as not giving a fiddlers and acquiring it anyway ^_^

    30
    See 10 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Audrey Muddiman
    Favourite Audrey Muddiman
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:46 PM

    Probably the only sensible response on. Social media I have seen thus far. Anyone saying there’s of research etc doesn’t consider the side effects. Do we seriously need another under research product on the market just because it might suit the vested interests to push it through

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fachtna Roe
    Favourite Fachtna Roe
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:12 PM

    @Audrey Muddiman: It’s been researched for the last 5,000 years.

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Greene
    Favourite Brendan Greene
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:25 PM

    @Fachtna Roe: no. It hasn’t. We are talking about peer reviewed research trials using controls and placebos. Commercial pressure is not a good environment for proper research.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Arragh Sure
    Favourite Arragh Sure
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 4:14 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: I am stunned (not) to see that the empirical evidence available for its good side effects in treating various ailments has thus far eluded you.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Conway
    Favourite Brian Conway
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 7:40 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: what do you think the yanks don’t do research?? There’s masses of research been done. Masses

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Clare McAfee
    Favourite Clare McAfee
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 8:45 AM

    @Audrey Muddiman: tell that to my chronic pain friends in the US with their State-granted medical cannabis licenses, based on scientific research (their consultant sends research in with their application). The license isn’t granted without it. Of course there’s side effects, of course it won’t work for everyone, but like any other drug it’s about the RIGHT to access. Let’s just sit here while the US make it legal on a federal basis.. it’ll happen. I spent 2 months in Colorado where it’s legal recreationally and medically – saying you can’t have access to regulated cannabis is like saying off you go to the pub and you’ve no idea what’s in your drink.. Strict laws re driving and public nuisance in CO, and I didn’t once see any incident. Did see cannabis in house window boxes a lot..

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Kearney
    Favourite Gary Kearney
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 2:13 PM

    @Arragh Sure: You are wrong and I know people who moved states in the US to use cannabis as medication.
    “Drugs Are Bad” line is killing the use of a non toxic drug.
    Big Pharma are stopping it until they get their artificial alternative right as the type on the market at the moment is lethal.
    There are thousands of studies and reports showing the good CBD does with a touch of THC in it.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Kearney
    Favourite Gary Kearney
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 2:15 PM

    @Audrey Muddiman: Pushing through a product you can grow yourself.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Kearney
    Favourite Gary Kearney
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 2:15 PM

    @Brendan Greene: It has been researched and thats why it is legal in a lot of states and countries like Canada.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vincent McDermott
    Favourite Vincent McDermott
    Report
    Dec 28th 2019, 8:07 AM

    @Gary Kearney: most active ingredients in Pharma is from natural products

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Damien Barton
    Favourite Damien Barton
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 10:11 PM

    Like antibiotics but keep selling away on them do

    27
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute EdmundOrlando
    Favourite EdmundOrlando
    Report
    Dec 26th 2019, 11:37 PM

    5htp is also a good cure all derived from plants thats legalised.. better than any anti depressant out there with minimal side effects!

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Emer Caffrey
    Favourite Emer Caffrey
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @EdmundOrlando: very interesting, first time I’ve heard of it. Can it be taken with anti depressants?

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mary Morrisey
    Favourite Mary Morrisey
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 10:45 AM

    @Emer Caffrey: No, just as St. John’s Wort can’t. 5HTP is not legally sold in Ireland.

    4
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vincent McDermott
    Favourite Vincent McDermott
    Report
    Dec 28th 2019, 8:12 AM

    @Mary Morrisey: St John’s Wort has moved to prescription as it was shown to be a chemical disrupted I believe, and can interefer with things like the contraceptive pill

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HearMeNow33
    Favourite HearMeNow33
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 12:26 PM

    I miss having a joint. Off it now 3.25 years. I know the day and date i stoped smoking it. No particular reason but drug driving laws were looming, not that i smoked while driving but i loved sitting down at night after work in front of tv and relaxing.. Preferred it to alcohol. Last drink i had was July… I never gave it up… I’m just on a break..

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Perlum Sprite
    Favourite Perlum Sprite
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 11:56 AM

    I would allow people to grow it at home, perhaps 2 plants.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tommy Sea
    Favourite Tommy Sea
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 1:46 AM

    I feel violated, my human rights trampled on, because of the way it is now.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deirdre Howard
    Favourite Deirdre Howard
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 1:49 PM

    I drink CBD coffee and find it relaxed me.i love it. The coffee tastes great to

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute aidan mccormack
    Favourite aidan mccormack
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 7:04 AM

    @Anna69axx: nice try… you probably have big balls than I do.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Real Online Career
    Favourite Real Online Career
    Report
    Jun 13th 2020, 2:00 PM

    CBD can be useful in treating depression – read about CBD and Depression at https://mjgrow.weebly.com/home/cbd-and-depression

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Dooley
    Favourite Paul Dooley
    Report
    Dec 27th 2019, 11:56 PM

    Time to test what they are selling

    Something is wrong when i saw it’s for sale in a tiny shopping center in sham town or which has 4 viable shops and a pop up shops all over the country

    Are these not the head shops back again wake up cal

    So it’s more profitable than everything else

    How much profit is out of it and is it addictive

    In 10 years time there will be an enquiry into it

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds