Bill backs housing referendum call
by Mehak Dugal
 
The campaign includes trade unions, housing and homeless agencies, women’s groups, political parties, and other representative groups.
The campaign includes trade unions, housing and homeless agencies, women’s groups, political parties, and other representative groups.

The Raise the Roof housing campaign group has backed calls for a right to housing to be enshrined in the Constitution. It comes following a new Bill, legislating for a referendum on the right to housing, that cleared the second stage in the Dáil on 3rd June.

 

Raise the Roof coordinator Macdara Doyle said that the creation of a new right to housing was an “essential element” in addressing the dysfunctional housing sector in Ireland and would help deliver affordable homes for all.

 

The campaign includes trade unions, housing and homeless agencies, women’s groups, political parties, and other representative groups. The campaign has been lobbying for support of constitutional referendum, with a focus on the commitment to hold a referendum contained in the Programme for Government. The campaign has called on all political parties to support the proposed measure.

 

The group has also called for a massive State-led investment programme to deliver affordable homes for all by utilising public land for public housing provision, cost rental units and affordable homes to purchase, along with measures to create genuine security and certainty for tenants.

 

Last week the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) advised the Government to double the housing investment to tackle the ongoing housing crisis in the country. It said without the boost in investment and funding by the State, the crisis would stretch for another decade and add onto already steep rents and prices.

 

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