Suzanne Harrington: Affordable housing for everyone is not a communist idea

Affordable housing for everyone requires us to stop viewing houses and flats as ‘investments’ — that is, goldmines with which to exploit the unhoused - and instead to see houses as they were originally intended: to provide shelter, security and comfort. 

Suzanne Harrington: I remember when rents were between one quarter to one-third of your income, depending on where you lived.

Shout out to June Shannon, the journalist who recently wrote about having to leave Dublin because she can no longer afford to live there. She and her husband, both Gen X, despite both always working full time, couldn’t afford to buy a place to live in the capital. So they rent, which in terms of housing security is the equivalent of being at sea on a lilo.  And now they have to uproot their family, to relocate somewhere more affordable. 

“At 51, I’m ashamed to say I’m still renting,” she writes. As though this is somehow her fault.