Is it time for mass protest at the housing crisis?

Idbatterim

Is it time for mass protest at the housing crisis? The only time the scum bags we elect to the dail are interested in us, is come election time. I have voted fg previously, I'm done with them. If they think a few euro a week decrease in USC is enough to keep people onside.

These same people who will be paying e700 plus for an average bedroom in an average house in an average part of Dublin IF they can even secure a viewing!

People protested about water, this scandal is off the wall in comparison. This situation is ruining lives and costing people a fortune, unlike water!

The only time they ever budge here, i.e. Politicians is when pressure is put on them and they collapse like a house of cards, as their populist nature compels them to.

Whatever ideological reason they have against solving the issues show a disgusting lack of empathy. I don't see what their issue is, their mates in the banks, the estate agents will be creaming it in with more building. More jobs, more lpt...

It's taken them 3 years minimum into the crisis to acknowledge the fact that apartment building is prohibitively expensive and wait more years for action. 3 years! 3 years of misery for tens of thousand of people of not more. What's the problem? They are overpaid, do nothing but talk it seems to me.

So there you go coppinger etc. Someone ill probably never agree with on economic policy etc, but organise a protest for this issue and I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you!

After the previous water crisis and protest and where that lead to. The government will do a pretty quick about turn this time! Particularly as an election could be held any time!

Your Face

I don't think protesting at mass will achieve anything.

TheQuietFella

Your Face wrote: »

I don't think protesting at mass will achieve anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC_abUffrcE

Dravokivich

The people done in by it, are working.

Idbatterim wrote: »

So there you go coppinger etc. Someone ill probably never agree with on economic policy etc, but organise a protest for this issue and I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with you!

She mobilised kids as billboards to carry poster boards for a bye-election a few years back. I don't think she's all that much to be honest.

SEPT 23 1989

could we not have three days of rage instead?

Red_Wake

It would certainly show how few people actually give a **** about the fictional housing crisis.

soups05

there is a small flaw in your thinking when it comes to a protest. bear with me a moment while i explain. I bought my house in 06, paid 130k for it, recession hit and it was worth maybe 30K. I still had to pay the mortgage of 130 of course. At the present time i have no earthly idea what it's worth, but lets say it's back to 130K. I could sell up, clear mortgage and have some left over, but what am i gonna do with it? not enough to buy another house, not enough to last too long renting, so I stay where I am.

Now if a protest where to take place, govt decided to throw money at the problem, built 20K house this year, then the demand will not be there, my house will lose value due to lack of demand, and ultimately i am trapped with a house i cant sell despite having a range of cheaper houses to chose from. why would i waste my time protesting to help those who don't have a house? i got mine so fk you.

please note: I am not really of this viewpoint, my own son is trying to get on the ladder at the moment and i feel for him. I am just trying to point out the attitude of many home owners in the country. why would they protest if it leads to them losing out in the long run ( in their view)

whisky_galore

Homeowners don't care, their house will fall in value.

Politicians don't care, the homeless/struggling tenant vote doesn't count.

The private sector that were supposed to come to the rescue won't lift a shovel unless there's something in it for them.

The private landlord and the faceless letting agencies aren't going to come to the rescue either, it's the market, baby. Suck it up.

The ordinary Joe Soap workers are too busy trying to keep their show on the road instead of protesting.

Irish Water was an easy win. IW lurched from one PR disaster to the next. Once the public could smell that the whole shambles was unworkable (unlike the property tax, Revenue weren't involved) and they could overturn the charges that was that.
This isn't so easy, too many snouts in the trough.

astrofool

After the recession, public opinion was vehemently against developers and landlords, and lots of laws and taxes were passed that affected them directly. It was also proclaimed that lots of the developments in urban areas would have to be knocked down and would never get used, and we had decades worth of housing stock.

As a result, developers stopped building, landlords started getting out of the business due to low (and still low) returns.

Now you want to mobilize the public to do what exactly? Unless they are qualified tradesmen and building houses themselves, they'll probably create even worse housing conditions to "solve" the crisis as politicians jump on the bandwagon and create a bunch of even stupider laws. Building good sustainable houses takes time, and it is happening at the moment, but it will probably be 18 months before it takes effect (by which time the next government will try to claim credit, even though they did effectively nothing). Next time the market collapses, maybe don't overshoot on the hyperbolae and assume that at some point growth will return and demand will increase again, and make laws that encourage such endeavors.

We also need to stop calling people with a roof over their head "homeless", they're not. The argument should be about giving them better homes to raise their quality of life from a low starting point, or they putting in the effort to afford their own better homes. Homeless people live on the street, and their plight is more a problem with lack of facilities and care for the mentally ill and addicted than to do with housing (and the one thing the public protests the most is a homeless shelter being created anywhere near where they live).

bullvine

They majority of people dont give a flying fook about it. Why would they? it doesn't affect them.

andekwarhola

There won't be a protest because most people aren't altruistic, they just think of what benefits themselves at a given time.

So when the market collapses again, most of the renters here that are currently looking to storm the winter palace will revert back to sharing tips on how to lowball their landlords on rent and giving each other high fives.

Protest what? I'm not in Ireland so I don't know the ins and outs, but are you trying to organise a protest because housing is expensive?

Wanderer78

'The market, the market'! Blah blah blah blah!

baldbear

Everyone should get a free house. This government is a disgrace.

MentalMario

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

piplip87

What we need

1) to do is find the scammers from this crisis. There are people who declare themselves homeless just to get bumped up the list.
2) Anybody who refuses a home because of location should be made pay for their own emergency accommodation.
3) Use NAMA more, thousands of empty units throughout the country. If it means moving people out if Dublin so be it. If you are long term unemployed you have no business living in the city.
4) Tax breaks for developers to get building again for the private market, we cannot solve the crisis without them.

brightspark

There are too many long term unemployed taking up the limited amount of space in cities etc.

Supply and demand will always mean that in the event of a limited supply prices will rise, only by reducing the numbers living in the cities will rents/prices fall to levels where workers can afford them again.

piplip87

piplip87 wrote: »

What we need

1) to do is find the scammers from this crisis. There are people who declare themselves homeless just to get bumped up the list.
2) Anybody who refuses a home because of location should be made pay for their own emergency accommodation.
3) Use NAMA more, thousands of empty units throughout the country. If it means moving people out if Dublin so be it. If you are long term unemployed you have no business living in the city.
4) Tax breaks for developers to get building again for the private market, we cannot solve the crisis without them.

5) Highrises

D3V!L

Thread TLDR = give me a free house because I deserve one

Wanderer78

MentalMario wrote:

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

Strangely enough, governments have the ability to just print the money they need without actually receiving it in taxes

whisky_galore

MentalMario wrote: »

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

:pac::pac::pac::pac:

hawkelady

What the op wants is for houses to be given to people who can't afford houses and he wants everyone to start marching for it ..... even the people who work hard to pay their own mortgage !!
Welcome to Ireland 2018

baldbear

MentalMario wrote: »

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

Vat & motor tax cover water charges. fianna Fail made sure of that

jiltloop

astrofool wrote: »

As a result, developers stopped building, landlords started getting out of the business due to low (and still low) returns.

Can you explain how you think returns for landlords could possibly be low at the moment when rents are at an all time high?

ted1

Wanderer78 wrote: »

MentalMario wrote:

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

Strangely enough, governments have the ability to just print the money they need without actually receiving it in taxes

Not governments who are part of a single European currency

WoollyRedHat

Surprise surprise that a number of people have jumped the gun and inferred that people want a free house when I don't see that implied in the orginal post. Primary School level debating to be fair.

Wanderer78

ted1 wrote:

Not governments who are part of a single European currency

Correct, so maybe we need to tackle this issue, as it seems like our current approach of allowing banks to print the majority of our money is failing

FTA69

Rent is through the roof in Cork and Dublin , we are being perpetually gouged by a class of landlords and we also spend a fortune every year paying rent allowance to private landlords as opposed to building sustainable social housing. In Ireland tenants have very little rights compared to Europe, paying through the nose for crap accommodation with short term leases.

We're constantly told "we need the private sector to build" when in reality it's not in their interest to do so as high rents and high land value suits them down to the ground. Housing people should be a key priority for any government and it's far too important to be left to a cabal of developers to dictate (we all know what happened last time.)

That is absolutely, 100% something worth campaigning for and the OP is spot on.

FTA69

MentalMario wrote: »

Maybe if ye paid your water charges, the government would have money to ease the housing crisis...

Nah they would just have flogged the water system off to a private company and you'd be paying through the bollix so some vulture fund can make a massive profit. That's what's happened pretty much everywhere else.

al87987

I find that people of a certain vintage, say over 35, don't care about this issue as the continuing crisis means they're becoming artificially wealthier ie. There house is worth a lot more money, but if they actually chose to sell they would have to reinvest in an inflated market and wouldn't have much money left.

This generation are being screwed left right and centre in terms of real income and housing. However one minor silver lining is that the next generation are set to become the biggest inheritors of wealth and housing ever but the major drawback to that is the fact that most of these inheritances will pass down to people when they're in their 60's because of the increased life expectancy of their parents.

Fann Linn

hawkelady wrote: »

What the op wants is for houses to be given to people who can't afford houses and he wants everyone to start marching for it ..... even the people who work hard to pay their own mortgage !!
Welcome to Ireland 2018

I actually think the op didn't ask for any of that. He asked that the govt address the housing crisis.

For the record I've four kids all in full time employment who cannot afford a house as there are too few around.
There is a housing crisis.