In any civilised society it would seem
natural to take as a basic given, that everybody has the right to a
roof over their head. Homelessness, when and if it happens, should be
a very short and temporary affair. However this insane system of
capitalism, that we seem to tolerate, creates homelessness by its
economic policies. Not that it pulls down houses so that there aren't
enough, it just makes them unaffordable to millions across Europe,
and then demonises those unfortunate enough to become victims of its
greed driven policies.
It is estimated that there are more
than 4 million homeless across Europe, and highlighting the insanity
of the system, Europe has more than 11 million empty houses. More
than enough to give every homeless person two homes. In that very
rich conglomerate we call Europe, you can pick your country and the
picture is much the same.
The most recent statistics on
homelessness in Ireland are from the Special
Census report on homeless persons in Ireland. Of the 4.5million
persons in Ireland on Census night (10th April 2011), 3,808 were in
accommodation providing shelter for homeless persons or were sleeping
rough. 62% (or 2,375) were living in Dublin on Census night, and 644
(17%) were under the age of 20. 15% or 553 people were non-Irish,
compared to 12% of the total population. Almost one-third of homeless
persons had health which was ‘Fair’, ‘Bad’ or ‘Very bad’,
compared with 10% of the general population.
There
are so many empty houses in Ireland there is talk of bulldozing some
to protect the housing market and keep prices up, not a new idea, as
this has been done in Spain. Deutsche
Bank figures suggest that there are 289,451 empty houses in
Ireland, including almost 60,000 vacant holiday homes. This
represents a vacancy rate of 15 per cent. A recent report suggested that it would take 43 years to fill them. With sanity we could fill most of them tomorrow..
So homelessness is
not a matter of not enough homes, we are awash with empty houses, it
is the system that prices people out of the ability to have that
basic right, of a roof over your head. It is the system that sees
houses as a means of making a profit, rather than a place to live. It
is the system of gross inequality where one person can have two or
more houses and others have to sleep rough. If sanity prevailed, the
system would be scrapped and people's needs would be seen to, and a
roof over your head would there for all.
