Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
DISABLED PEOPLE MAKE up 13.5% of the population but represent 27% of the homeless population.
That is a scary reality, but those statistics are only the tip of the iceberg.
Deeming someone to be ‘homeless’ is an extreme categorisation and in doing that we are forgetting a large number of disabled people in our society who go under the radar but who could and should also be categorised as homeless.
I want three things.
I want us to stop hiding behind words like congregated settings or supported living arrangements that confuse people and talk about homes.
Read more here on how to support a major Noteworthy project to investigate how difficult it is for disabled people to secure a home in Ireland.
Secondly, I want us to truly switch from the language of ‘caring for people’ to supporting people to have their rights realised; the language of rights is much more empowering.
Thirdly, I need us to stop pitting different disabilities or support needs against each other, whether physical impairment, intellectual or sensory disability or any type of support need you can imagine. We are all humans, and whether we need a lot or a little support, we need to have it, when we need it and how we need it.
Supports never materialise
Outside of being homeless, over 2,800 disabled people continue to live in congregated settings.
A congregated setting is a residential placement – usually a disability service – where 10 or more people live together in a group home or campus like setting with staff in support roles.
On top of that, more than 1,300 people under the age of 65 are living in nursing homes.
Finally, there are countless disabled people living with their parents or family members for years longer than they should have to. For some ‘moving out’ into a home of their own never becomes an option because the housing and supports to live in that house never materialise.
Truthfully, it would be easier to count the disabled people who have the opportunity to have their own home, than any other group because they are so few and far between.
An unattainable dream
We need to start talking about homes, not ‘settings’ or ‘arrangements’.
For many, a real home feels like an unattainable dream reserved for the select few who have a personalised budget or a support package that makes it possible for them.
We can throw around the figures of disabled people who are misplaced but I want you to think about what that really means.
For the 2,800 plus people who live in congregated settings, most have an intellectual disability and most of them had no choice and control about where they lived and who they lived with… for years!
Just think about that for a second.
Imagine living in a place you didn’t like with people you didn’t get on with and staff you did not want to be around.
Imagine there were rules dictating where you went and when you went there, when you had a shower, when you went to bed and when you got up again.
Imagine you had to eat when everyone else was eating and only had a choice of two options on a good day.
What I describe sounds more like prison than a life.
I describe it in extreme terms. It is really important to say that since we ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2018, many people who are supported by disability services do exercise some choice in how they live – but it is not enough.
All of the people in congregated setting may not want to live alone. All of them may not need around the clock care.
They all have a right to live in their community and have a right to choose where they live and who they live with. They should have the support they need to live a good life, to live near services and feel at home.
Rights start with a home
In all our disability policy we have fallen into the trap of assigning particular language to our sector and that language has made it so that we accept what is truly unacceptable.
A ‘congregated setting’ is a constructed term that is rooted in our health and disability services and it has become the norm for only a few people per year to move into the community.
When I think of more than 1,300 people under the age of 65 who are living in nursing homes, I get so angry. Each individual is there because there is no ‘more suitable’ place for them.
Imagine if you woke up every single day knowing you were in the wrong place, knowing that you don’t belong. It would make you feel like nobody cares! It’s just not right and needs to change now.
Our disability services were born out of charity, out of people having nowhere to turn and good human beings stepping in to change it. Care became our barometer for whether we were doing a good job or not.
In our commitments to UNCRPD, care is no longer good enough, people being in bad situations is not good enough.
We must make sure disabled people – all disabled people – have their rights realised and that starts with a home, where each person has choice and control over where they live, who they live with, what they do and where they go.
It includes all the supports each individual needs to live the life of their choosing- anything less is not good enough!
Real action plan needed
In Budget 2023 we need to see a real action plan from government.
This needs to detail how many will be funded to move out of congregated settings and how many will be funded to move out of their family home and into a home of their own. It should also show how many people will move out of completely unsuitable nursing homes.
When we see the real numbers, it might wake us up so we can see how big an issue this is and how long it will take at the current pace for people to have a home of their own.
Julie Helen is Communication and Information Manager with Inclusion Ireland, a national advocacy organisation for people with an intellectual disability. Julie is a disabled woman who is a journalist and activist.
NO ROOM Investigation
Across Ireland, over 2,800 disabled people continue to live in congregated settings and more than 1,300 people under the age of 65 are living in nursing homes.
The Noteworthy investigative team want to conduct an in-depth investigation into the housing crisis facing disabled people and meet with disabled people living in inappropriate accommodation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Thanks to the government – Home is unattainable for masses of people that are not disabled…
And to those that are unfortunate to be disabled should forget getting a home here in Ireland.
@John Johnes: interesting comment John. I mean I think it is really fascinating that anyone would compare the two. I mean the reality is most people in employment can infact purchase a home somewhere but many wish to live in a certain location. The sad reality for many people with disabilities is the limited access to employment, mortgage approval and subsequent life assurance to draw down any mortgage offer they may be offered and of course servicing the mortgage depending on the nature of the disability. This along with genuine restrictions on where one can live, e.g. to be near services, healthcare, supports, functioning public services like transport links etc again depending on the nature of the disability and generalising grossly here. I find it fascinating that anyone would bring on the perceived wows of the “typical” “mainstream” or non disabled person into the sole comment on this article.
@Sarah Lou: yeah but that’s John for you
@Sarah Lou:
Most people in employment can purchase a home? The average wage nationwide is less than 50k, good luck with getting a mortgage that would be enough to buy a house.
@Dean: 50000×3.5 +10% deposit, would get you a home somewhere in Ireland. As I said above most people who say they cant afford a home, mean they cant afford a home where they want to live. Also many if not most people buy a home with 2 incomes statistically, so that is 100000×3.5 + 10% and would buy you a home in many areas. I cant actually believe you think a person on 50k without a disability is in anyway comparable to someone on the Disability Allowance without the ability to earn any wage or secure any mortgage etc. This is a little to me like when people were describing individuals in dublin airport going on their jollies as the third world. Unpleasant Airport experience, definitely not satisfactory or acceptable in Ireland in 2022 but no kids were dying from malnourishment in the airport. Get a little perspective.
Owning a home is only a pipe dream for anyone in Ireland regardless of disability or not
@Ronan Horan: Really? I’m someone in Ireland I’ll be collecting the keys to my new build home by the end of the month.
@Roy Dowling: Roy you have been around here long enough to know noone wants to hear your good news!!!!! Just kidding congrats and well done for highlighting that it’s not all doomsday stuff
Not to minimise the challenges faced by people living with disabilities, but the reason for this is the same reason that numerous other people not living with disabilities, also struggle to find or afford a home, the lack of affordable social housing.
Which is a failure of successive governments across all parties that have been in government in the past and three of whom are currently in government, to build social housing.
Not because the demand hasn’t existed dyring the last 35 years, but because they instead chose to keep house values inflated, by limiting the supply and facilitating property developers and investors to capitalise on the artificially created circumstances of turning houses into assets that out performed all other investment opportunities, great for their cronies, but the knock on effect is that houses are now so overvalued, that hedge funds have bought them up to control the rental market, further inflating the price of rent to levels that even people with good jobs can’t afford to pay.
The only way out of this cul de sac of greed is to elect a government that will deliver social housing on the scale required, this will allow everyone that needs social housing to be housed and also lower the prices of houses and rent across the board to benefit everyone, except property developers and hedge funds.
This socialist solution may be a bitter pill for some to swallow, but the alternative is continuing to watch generations of our children leaving Ireland, because they can’t afford to live here…
@David Van-Standen: We know how this works. Sinn Fein/IRA will promise to fix all our woes, including global famine. But if they do get into power will claim that due to years of mismanagement they are unable to fulfill our dreams and will be worse than those who went before as they’ll have no experience of government. What they have is a well oiled machine to rally voters.
@David Van-Standen: The subject is persons with Disabilities and homelessness.
Yet as usual, people forget the main topic to push their own agenda.
Please stuck to the topic,
The topic is disabled peoples access to housing, nothing else.
If you are not interested in the subject but housing for able people instead comment on an article about that subject, as this is not that article
3d printed housing technolgy may help when it gets going properly. Apparently the build is much much cheaper as labour is significantly reduced.
The first thing we want should be for the Government to lay down rules for banks. With regard to mortgages when on disability allowance Banks should be made give these people the loan they need at a reduced interest rate. They could recoup 50% of their loss on mortgages over one million euro – that’d solve the problem but obviously No politician has the ingenuity to pull this off.
Amazing all these comments by people pushing their own issues and nothing to do with the topic.
Nothing unusual with, disability issues being ignored or worse used to push personal agendas.
Our needs and campaigns are regularly hijacked by able people to promote themselves and their agenda.
Disability rights, issues etc will then be fully ignored again until they see the possibility to use us again.
Noteworthy have worked hard to show the reality of my community and its issues.
Sick of the crocodile tears on here for my community. Not just here either, the hypocrisy of most people in relation to disability inclusion is frightening.
Most of it is by accident but it still has the same affect on us.
Educate yourselves on the topic, beome aware of the people in my community.
Here is a shocking thought, ASK THEM?
Julie Helen
No one can solve the Affordable Housing issue in Ireland until the Referendum on Housing is passed. Only then can the laws be passed to remove all the barriers to enable affordable house building and affordable rents for all Irish citizens.
Current Irish Constitution is ambiguous, vague and open to interpretation which suits all those vested interests in high Rents and high House prices.
New home in France for €160,000 (80K site & 80K house.) not €260,000 in Ireland.
37% of cost of new homes in Ireland is completely artificial and has nothing to do with the cost of build. VAT alone on a new house in Ireland is €28,000 .. none in France.
A Referendum is the only way out for all those locked out of home ownership and rent slaves.
https://www.change.org/p/irish-referendum-on-family-home-special-status
@Neuville-Kepler62F: Please stick to the topic and keep your own agenda to yourself.
the topic is the DISABLED COPMMUNITY and Housing
It could be argued that Homelessness is the new disabled?
have your say