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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
July 2022 39
pre-conditions (such as overcoming addiction or
finding employment). Those receiving
accommodation have their lease paid for a year,
giving them the breathing space to find a job,
obtain services and prepare to either continue
paying the rent themselves, or find alternative
accommodation.
Three quarters of those receiving this ‘rapid
rehousing’have remained housed after their one-
year period expired. The system is not perfect and
further work needs to be done to support those
who do not qualify for the scheme; however,
research shows that the ‘housing first’ approach
works. It is estimated that Houston has reduced
its rate of homelessness by almost two-thirds
through this proactive approach.
Ireland has a variety of dierent organisations
focused on alleviating the housing crisis. We can
draw inspiration from the joined up approach
taken by the city authorities and local non-profit
and charitable organisations in Houston (many of
which had historically competed with one another
for funding) in working together to take
meaningful action to get roofs over people’s
heads.
How do we square a claim that Ireland is indeed
a republic, with the reality of the increasing
numbers of individuals and families facing
homelessness and a state of “unfreedom”?
Perhaps this is what the President was getting at
in his speech.
To argue for a shift from viewing housing as an
investment to a legal right is not to pursue a
“dangerous Marxist ideology”, to use the words
of Lucinda Creighton in the Business Post in June,
arguing that “Higgins’s railing on policy issues is
as predictable as it is inappropriate. His narrow
constitutional role has never stopped Michael D
Higgins from championing a jaded and dangerous
Marxist ideology and attacking Ireland’s open,
liberal economic model”.
The argument that there is a legal right to a
home is recognition that every person in a republic
has the right to live a free and dignified life. If a
place like Houston, Texas – traditionally a bastion
of laissez-faire and deeply divided over matters
that touch on personal rights such as abortion
and gun control — can take the bull by the horns
on homelessness, then the real question we
should be asking is: why can’t Ireland?
Seána Glennon is a lawyer and PhD candidate at
the Sutherland School of Law, UCD, and Chief
Outreach Ocer at UCD’s Centre for Constitutional
Studies.
present on any private property without
permission. They do not have a private space to
sleep, wash, cook and go to the bathroom. They
are instead relegated to public spaces.
Yet our public spaces themselves are
increasingly regulated. Public parks and
pavements do not permit characteristic domestic
activities – sleeping, cooking, washing, using the
bathroom and so on. The authorities can “move
on” or even prosecute homeless people carrying
out these basic activities in public spaces.
For homeless people there may be no place they
are free to simply “be”; they are, as argued by
Professor Waldron, “unfree”.
The homelessness crisis has steadily worsened
in Ireland for the past decade. Last month, it was
reported that the number of people experiencing
homelessness had risen to over 10,000 for the
first time since the pandemic hit. It is dicult to
get a sense of the full extent of the crisis, however,
as most ocial figures do not take account of
those living in precarious circumstances, on the
cusp of homelessness. This includes people who
have been served a notice of termination of their
tenancy, those in rent or mortgage arrears, women
fleeing domestic abuse and those in Direct
Provision.
The housing crisis is complex and multifaceted,
but we can look to some unlikely places
internationally for a proactive approach to ending
homelessness that is proving to work.
While Ireland’s homelessness crisis has gone
from bad to worse in the past 10 years, the city of
Houston, Texas, has made remarkable strides in
that period of time in housing the homeless,
through a “housing first” initiative.
The city has approached its homelessness
crisis by partnering with a variety of local aid
organisations to place homeless people directly
into accommodation without imposing
P
resident Michael D Higgins’ recent
comments at the opening of a new
facility for homeless young people, in
which he designated the Irish housing
crisis “our great, great, great failure”
has rather predictably resulted in much
consternation and pearl-clutching on the part of
those concerned about the President’s proper
constitutional role.
Outrage over the propriety of the President’s
apparent criticism of government policy, however,
seems rather petty in the face of the scale of the
epic housing crisis.
Criticising the role of international investment
funds in the Irish housing sector and the drastic
increase in homelessness among younger people,
the President asked: “How republican is what we
created?”.
This raises a much more important question for
present purposes than the rights or wrongs of the
President commenting on an issue: what does it
mean to live in a republic, and how does the idea
of housing as a fundamental right fit into the
republican ideal?
Republicanism is, broadly, a theory of
democracy that centres on government “by the
people”. One of the central ideas of the republican
theory is the freedom of the people. The theorist
Philip Pettit explains that from a civic republican
perspective, the most legitimate system of
government is one that provides for the people’s
equal enjoyment of freedom; every citizen must
have the freedom to make choices without
requiring the permission or goodwill of another.
Of course, people’s actions may be restricted by
law – but those restrictions must be in the
common interest. The state may not arbitrarily
interfere with people’s choices – it must respect
individual liberty.
How does this republican idea of the freedom
of the people connect to the housing crisis?
I know Village likes to ground rights in equality
and is not well disposed to property rights but I’d
like to look at the housing crisis from the
perspective of freedom, as seen for example by
the legal philosopher Jeremy Waldron. The rules
of private property mean that anyone who owns a
piece of land is entitled to exclude everyone else
from that land. Anyone present on private
property without permission may be guilty of
trespassing and the owner can call the authorities.
Homeless people have no entitlement to be
I’d like to look at the housing
crisis from the perspective
of freedom, as seen for
example by the legal
philosopher Jeremy Waldron
Unfree simply to be
The scale of our homelessness problem makes it difficult to argue we are a Republic
By Seána Glennon
OPINION
