Housing expert, activist and author of Gaffs, Rory Hearne, believes that we can and must act fast to simultaneously address the housing and immigration crisis in Ireland and believes the solution is glaringly obvious - open up the tens of thousands of buildings lying empty around the country and repurpose them as housing.
Housing and immigration have been central to Hearne’s candidacy for the Midlands-North-West European Parliamnet election.
However, he made these comments in response to the harrowing images in recent weeks of vulnerable asylum seekers pitched up in tents in the heart of our capital city.
“The recent increase in the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers and the images of the makeshift shanty town in Dublin City in recent months have been weaponized by a small group of far-right anti-immigration “protesters” who have preyed on genuinely concerned Irish citizens suffering for years now under a housing crisis, and created mass resentment,” he said.
“These people, without secure and affordable housing, have latched on to the idea that Ireland is full and that they’re competing with refugees and asylum seekers for resources. In reality, we are a very wealthy country, rich in resources, and there’s tens of thousands of vacant and derelict buildings that can and should be used as housing. We are a welcoming country, it is not full, just full of issues, and this all comes back to desperate housing policy,” he said.
“Even worse, the Government’s refusal to provide accommodation to male asylum seekers is only an effort to appear to “be tough” on immigration and has created this situation of tented accommodation sprawling throughout Dublin City. It is a political move to dog whistle to a certain audience. Not only are these actions failing really vulnerable people seeking asylum but they are fuelling the far-right by pushing genuinely concerned people their way during an election period.”
“We need COVID-type emergency action to open up the hundreds of public derelict buildings and use them. Not only is this a viable and sustainable solution to the housing crisis, but will also ensure that asylum seekers are treated with dignity. Everyone needs a warm, clean and safe place to lay their head. This can be done, we just need the political will they demonstrated during the pandemic.”
