I will fight for Universal Homes
Killian Mangan is running as an Independent candidate in the General Election
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed our generation. Many of those I know struggle to afford rent despite having good jobs. Others were pushed out of the country, away from their communities, friends and families, in order to be able to obtain a better quality of life in Sydney, Vancouver, or elsewhere in Europe. I always tell people that I am experiencing the ‘Irish Dream’ of living with my parents in my late twenties; just like roughly2in3people my age (68% of those who are 25-29 years old). Everyone knows that these parties continue to ruin our chances of getting a home, and it’s easy to point out their economic illiteracy (or nefarious incompetence) in housing policy, but it is a much more challenging task to highlight a radical, positive, and tangible alternative vision for a better housing system.
In this editorial, I will attempt to do so; in detailing this, I bring my experience in tenants’ unions in recent years, both as an active member of Living Rent Tenants’ Union in Scotland and as a founding member of CATU (Community Action Tenants’ Union) Waterford, in addition to my personal experience living and renting in various cities and countries throughout Europe.
I have extensively researched the various housing models in existence across the world, and one stands out for its complete success in avoiding a Housing Crisis despite existing within an economy built on Western values and facing a large population increase in recent years; the Vienna Model.
We know the ingredients which allow Vienna’s housing system to thrive; a mix of expansive near-universal public housing (80% of Vienna’s population qualifies based on income limits), support for housing co-ops, and stringent rent controls which set a maximum rent for each property based on a rent index designed by local government. Taken together, this represents a conscious and complete rejection of the financialisation of homes which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have instead decided to embrace in recent decades.
To be clear, progressive and left parties in Ireland have many good policies which I support; I read Sinn Féin’s recent 109-page ‘A Home of Your Own’ plan and have followed extensively the great proposals put forward by People Before Profit and the Social Democrats.
These all seek to move our concept of housing away from that of a property asset towards that of a universal right.
I am impressed with Sinn Féin’s plan to use more-efficient direct labour and to introduce a new model of public housing which blurs the line between public and private ownership while removing profiteering, and I support the Soc Dems and PBP’s proposals for a state construction company. My main concerns lie with Sinn Féin’s continued heavy reliance on private housing, and, in all parties’ plans, the conspicuous absence of cooperatives as a key part of the solution. There is also a distinct lack of focus on truly decarbonising housing by constructing new homes to the passivhaus standard.
I hope that, if I am lucky enough to be trusted by voters on Friday 29th November, I can lend my support as a TD to a progressive government which, in contrast to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, actually seeks to end the Housing Crisis within a few years. In the weeks and months which follow the election, I promise to do what I can to ensure that co-ops are a major part of the solution. On top of a state construction company, we must support the creation of construction worker co-ops which are smaller, more agile, and less hierarchical than a larger public institution. On top of building public housing, we must empower credit unions to finance housing co-ops, allowing for the addition of a fully distinct and democratic form of housing which offers autonomy while building community in a way that neither private nor public housing can. These measures, alongside a more ambitious plan to decarbonise our homes, would be transformative for all of us.
As I write this from my parents house while hearing about the latest eviction of a fellow CATU member, I can so clearly envision a better housing system beginning to take shape after the general election; one which is more democratic, more decentralised, and more decarbonised; one in which We All Thrive.
If you believe in this vision, vote Killian Mangan #1 on Friday 29th November.
