Homelessness just a symptom: Crisis is now about more than housing

In recent days, up to 10,000 people took part in a protest over the housing outside Leinster House. In a country with 10,000 — and rising — homeless people and tens of thousands more living close to the life of an indentured servant because housing prices are utterly disconnected to incomes, that protest is inevitable. In a country where tens of thousands of workers are condemned to a lifetime of making landlords’ and vulture funds’ investments pay off, those protests can only grow.

Speaking at the rally Fr Peter McVerry warned that there are “at least half a million people... whose housing situation is causing them serious distress”.