A tale of two busts (and a boom) : Irish social housing before and after the Global Financial Crisis

• Authors: Michelle Norris , Michael Byrne
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article examines the marked decline in Irish social housing’s traditional role as the main source of accommodation for low-income households. We argue that although this policy redirection has become clearly apparent in the context of the Global Financial Crisis; its roots are, in fact, much older. They lie, not in Ireland’s most recent fiscal crisis, but in the last one which occurred between the late 1970s and mid-1980s. Changes made to arrangements for funding social housing during this time effected a long-term contraction in the social housing’s contribution to total housing output which, in turn, precipitated growing reliance on housing allowance subsidised private rented housing to accommodate this group. The post-GFC austerity merely accelerated this long-term trend rather than signalled a new policy direction.

Keywords

EN

social housing; housing allowances; Ireland

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Critical Housing Analysis
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 19-28
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Michelle Norris

• Critical Housing Analysis, redakce,Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Michael Byrne

• Critical Housing Analysis, redakce,Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic