When published on 19th July 2016, the Irish Government’s Rebuilding Ireland action plan for housing and homelessness described the Irish housing sector as ‘dysfunctional and under-performing’. Three years later, by practically every metric, the crisis has deepened, leading Peter McVerry SJ to label it ‘an abject failure‘. Rebuilding ‘Rebuilding Ireland’, our analysis of the plan,… Read more »

The latest figures for homelessness in Ireland have been published and for the first time the numbers counted are above 10,000. With over 3,700 children without a home, and the numbers of homeless families still growing, there is widespread dismay at the government’s failure to meaningfully respond to this long-running crisis, says Kevin Hargaden. Minister… Read more »

The latest figures for homelessness in Ireland have been published and for the first time the numbers counted are above 10,000. With over 3,700 children without a home, and the numbers of homeless families still growing, there is widespread dismay at the government’s failure to meaningfully respond to this long-running crisis, says Kevin Hargaden.

The former chair of the Housing Agency, Conor Skehan, appeared on RTÉ One’s Claire Byrne Live last night to discuss the ongoing housing crisis. A number of assertions he makes during the interview as well as his attack on services provided for people experiencing homelessness need to be challenged, says Kevin Hargaden.

A statement by JCFJ on international Human Rights Day. ‘A Right Denied: The Right to Housing in Ireland Seventy Years after the Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.

The only public service available to the poor, for which there is no waiting list, is the prison service, says Peter McVerry SJ.

A speech at the October 3rd Raise the Roof housing rally by Peter McVerry SJ urged the assembled crowd to let the government know that they would ‘vote homelessness out’ at the next general election.  

“The homeless and housing crisis is the biggest social problem that Ireland has faced in a generation,”  says Peter McVerry SJ. Support the Raise the Roof housing rally tomorrow and protest against the government’s failure to adequately address the crisis.

Working Notes has a brand new look! In Issue 82, we look back on the ten years since the crash.

Fr Peter McVerry, speaking at the end of last Saturday’s National Homeless and Housing Coalition march said that the message to this Government is ‘Don’t show me the way to a hostel. Don’t show me the way to a bed and breakfast. Show me the way to go home.’ 

‘Where is the Emergency Action Plan for the Housing Emergency?’ Fr Peter McVerry demands that Leo Varadkar and his Government commit to taking concrete steps to solve the housing crisis.

Fr Peter McVerry of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice will speak at the National Homeless and Housing Coalition protest march this Saturday 7th April to reiterate the lack of confidence he has in the ability or willingness of this Government to end homelessness.

Not too long ago it was assumed that people born in Ireland would be Christian; something which is no longer the case. This is good news for the church, says theologian Kevin Hargaden in this week’s reflection.   

‘Housing is a fundamental human right’ said Fr Peter McVerry of the JCFJ and Sr Stanislaus Kennedy of Focus Ireland, who have joined forces to condemn the Government’s response to the housing crisis, calling the current situation ‘an emergency that requires far more radical action than we have seen so far.’

In week seven of our Lenten Reflection series, during Holy Week, we are asked to consider that the same crowds that welcomed Jesus as King on Sunday called for his death on Thursday. Yet in the gospels, Jesus teaches us that we should undertake the seemingly impossible task of laying down arms and taking up… Read more »

A proposed survey of homeless people who have experienced emergency accommodation aims to identify the difficulties inherent in using the service and explore why some people feel safer sleeping on the streets.

In this week’s reflection, Kevin Hargaden considers the well-loved parable of the Prodigal Son and wonders if we really know it as well as we think. The tale, like many others in the Bible, offers no hard and fast answers and is more likely to perplex than clarify.

The worth of the Lenten season would be increased if we could make the connection between the refugee God we seek to know better and the refugee neighbour we probably do not know at all, says theologian Kevin Hargaden in this week’s reflection.

The Shock of Exile is the theme of this week’s Lenten Reflection by our social theologian, Dr Kevin Hargaden, where he explores the anguish of exile as told in the Bible and how it is mirrored in the current housing crisis. 

This week’s Lenten Reflection looks at Exodus and the Israelites in the desert to explore how the search for home sometimes leaves us discontented, regardless of how good our circumstances are.

The second week of our Lenten Reflections series is called The Risk of Leaving our Father’s Home and looks at the unreality of a housing system dedicated to profit, not shelter.

The first in our Lenten Reflections series, by social theologian Dr Kevin Hargaden invites us to ponder our own existential homelessness.

The introduction to our 2018 Lenten Reflections series, by Dr Kevin Hargaden asks that as we spiritually prepare ourselves for the celebration of Easter, we do not express our spirituality as a withdrawal from the complexities of our life into some imagined, hidden, private space where we can feel things are simple again.  

Trinity Centre for Urban and Regional Studies in association with The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice invites you to the symposium ‘Housing in Ireland: Philosophy, Policies and Results’.

Rebuilding Ireland, the Government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, relies far too heavily on market-based solutions to the problems facing Irish housing. Because of this, it will fail in its stated objective of developing an ‘affordable, stable and sustainable’ housing system.