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LAST UPDATE | 15 hrs ago
A HOUSING PROTEST backed by more than 80 trade unions and organisations has taken place in Dublin city centre today.
Protesters held signs saying “The housing crisis is a political choice” and saying that “Landlords are guilty”, with the demonstration moving from the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square.
The protest was also attended by representatives of a number of Opposition political parties, including Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, Labour and Social Democrats.
Organised by the renters group called Community Action Tenants Union Ireland (Catu), the group is seeking for the Dáil to immediately implement a number of measures to protect people across the island from homelessness.
Catu also wants the re-instatement of the eviction ban, which expired in March two years ago, and a commitment to ensure no child is living in emergency accommodation by 2026.
It also wants “proper resourcing” of the Tenant in Situ scheme, which has been hit by changes and restrictions that risked sending people into homelessness.
The union also demands a rapid expansion of community mental health and addiction supports to address the complex harms experienced by many people forced into the homeless system.
Describing itself as an all-island union, it also wants the same measures implemented by Stormont in the North.
Organisations who endorsed today’s demo included Forsa, Siptu, Conradh na Gaeilge and Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland.
John Bohan, a member of Catu’s national committee, said today’s protest is trying to capture “anger” on the issue that he feels was lost due to the pandemic.
“There had been such momentum on housing as an issue. Before the pandemic hit, you had these massive protests, occupations of key buildings like Apollo House, you had pushback against evictions, and you had the big Raise the Roof rallies,” Bohan said.
“Covid just put a pause on that. I think the big danger is to turn housing into a new healthcare, where people are like, ‘Oh, that’s that’s a joke, it’s been broken for years and it will take a load of years to fix it so what can you do?’ That sense of apathy has really built up.”
The latest figures show that 15,747 people were living in emergency accommodation in May.
The figure includes 4,844 children – some 69 more than last month.
The statistics do not include people rough sleeping, refugees, asylum seekers, individuals in domestic violence shelters, or those experiencing “hidden homelessness”, such as sleeping in cars, on couches, or other unsuitable living conditions.
Bohan said the the aim of today’s protest is that to direct anger towards people who are “responsible delivering policy decisions, to help organise and focus our friends and neighbors towards people with power who change things”.
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Isn’t the fatherly love thing so sweet? What a guy, making all those calls just to make his little flat-capped mini-me feel his love. It probably took 3,600 calls just for Jackie Healy Rae to be understood once though… Donkey.
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