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Last night my colleague, Peter McVerry, went on the tv to talk about his life. The response has been fairly overwhelming. Even a prominent Fine Gael MEP couldn't resist agreeing with the quiet force of his witness.
FG Cllr David McManus did not like what Peter had to say. He suggested that his party has built 22,000 homes in the last five years and his point was:
that Peter was misleading to the audience! https://twitter.com/McManusDavid/status/1381008493969309756
that Peter was misleading to the audience! https://twitter.com/McManusDavid/status/1381008493969309756
When I called him on this, he replied by saying the figures are official. That is almost true. The official figure is 22,964.
Now as an aside, David might not know this but you should: housing figures that are official are also problematic. Don't take my word for it. The European Commission has described our numbers as suffering from "statistical obfuscation, if not corruption" https://www.jcfj.ie/2019/09/25/eu-report-finds-homelessness-figures-misreported/
Now how do those numbers break down? The devil, they say, is in the detail.
Over the five year period (2016-2020):
- LA New Builds* were 7,857 (34.2% of total)
- AHB New Builds were 6,761 (29.4%)
- Part V's were 3,418 (14.9%)
- Voids were 4,928 (21.5%)
Over the five year period (2016-2020):
- LA New Builds* were 7,857 (34.2% of total)
- AHB New Builds were 6,761 (29.4%)
- Part V's were 3,418 (14.9%)
- Voids were 4,928 (21.5%)
Now local authority new builds has an asterisk beside it because it is an umbrella term including turnkey houses (what the average voter thinks the politician is talking about when they say social housing) PPPs, and regeneration schemes. These numbers aren't broken down further.
See: EU declaring our stats obfuscated
You see regeneration up there and you start to wonder. Cllr McManus said the houses were being built. I had my kitchen cabinets resprayed last month. I am now going to tell everyone I build a new kitchen.
PPPs are public private partnerships. So when he says social housing is being built, he doesn't necessarily mean it was built by democratically elected and accountable local authorities.
AHBs are approved housing bodies - like Peter McVerry Trust - which have stepped in to cover the gap created by the catastrophic policies implemented by successive governments. Peter would be the first person to tell you that, ideally, we should not be relying on charity!
Part Vs are where the developer sells houses as part of the terms of getting permission. We ain't knocking this, but let's be clear that @DeptHousingIRL has itself admitted that local authorities can build cheaper than it costs to buy from the developer: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/council-reasons-for-not-building-houses-just-don-t-stack-up-1.4421512
But let's go back to that devilish detail. The implication of the original tweet is that social housing is being built. But new builds by local authorities - which is the central plank of any reasonable plan to alleviate the dire crisis of homelessness we face - is only 1 in 3.
Based on Cllr McManus' logic, that's 7854 houses in five years. That's 1570 houses a year on average. To put this in context, let's remember there are - officially! - 8238 homeless people in Ireland.
Voids are where we take vacant properties and resuscitate them. Forget all the other detail and this alone is damning: the claim that social housing is being *built* relies on counting 1 in 5 properties that already existed.
"Sometimes they don't like facts" says one of David's fans. But David was under the impression on March 9 that 17000 houses had been built. Either we finished 5000 houses during lockdown, or facts might be an issue. (Reader: "Facts" are the issue) https://www.facebook.com/mcmanusdavidfg/videos/vb.251780059050043/137391648273153/?type=3&theater
Now in David's own territory, based on the Social Housing Assessment 2020, there were 4,764 households on the waiting list for social housing. This represents 7.7% of the national total. In that period, an additional 463 households were added to HAP https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/970ea-summary-of-social-housing-assessments-2020-key-findings/
HAP, by the way, should never be forgotten. Peter never fails to mention it. It functions as a subsidy from public funds to private landlords to the tune of *millions* every day. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/peter-mcverry-rebuilding-ireland-is-an-abject-failure-1.3960711
Yet the South Dublin County Council only had 109 new builds in 2020 (41 by LAs and 67 by AHBs). So you had a reported housing need of over 5,000 households in his constituency and they built enough social housing for 2%.
The point of all this is to hammer home that the truth really does matter. But the truth is never simply contained in data published by governmental bodies.
Even if you are convinced by the methodology behind the numbers -which you could reasonably be- the point that Cllr McManus makes is still catastrophic. 22964 is still well below HALF of what was promised in Rebuilding Ireland in 2016. (Action #2.1 p. 93) https://rebuildingireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Rebuilding-Ireland_Action-Plan.pdf
But remember when I noted how the EU critiqued the housing stats? That truth really matters. For all the talk about "populism" from politicians, the willingness to spin cataclysmic, life-destroying social policies ultimately erodes everybody's trust in democracy itself.
I don't take half an hour out of my Sunday to have a go at a random councilor here. I am making an argument - as a theologian! - that telling the truth really matters and (irony alert!) scoring points is not politics. We really do need to resolve the housing & homelessness crisis
Cllr McManus suggests I am doing an "ideology". I don't hide my bias: I approach policy guided by Christian Social Teaching, informed by Jesus. I mostly learned how to do it from watching Peter! There's no purer ideology than thinking you have evaded it: https://www.jcfj.ie/2021/01/15/give-up-yer-oul-ideologies
The truth is there are ways out of this crisis. Peter McVerry and @keith_jcfj have described a simple five point plan here. Others exist. They all rely on being honest about how bad the situation is and how "markets" can't save us from it: http://www.jcfj.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Rebuilding_Ireland_Final.pdf
The truth is the Christian message is tied up inextricably with the idea of homelessness, something myself and Peter explore at length here, in case you want to think about these things from a spiritual perspective: https://www.irishchurches.org/cmsfiles/homeless/
The truth is what Peter described. Respecting your neighbour is a pre-condition for love. We need not have neighbours who experience homelessness. We have chosen the shape of the society we have. We can choose otherwise. But to do that, we have to first face the truth.
Addition: We have clear ideas about how to solve this crisis but we are not proposing some "ideologically pure" programme. Throw everything at this beast of a problem. But at least call it a beast. Don't insult people by suggesting that it's all in hand if we stay the course.
