Call for right to housing to be in Constitution

The right to housing must be enshrined in the Constitution to ensure social justice and combat homelessness, the Simon Community and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said yesterday.

In separate submissions to the Joint Committee on the Constitution on property rights, both called for the Constitution to be amended to include the right to housing.

Current legislation and the policies of local authorities had failed to guarantee the right to a home, the Simon Communities of Ireland said.

"Ireland's legal obligation to the right to adequate housing has not been realised. As the homelessness crisis intensifies, the failure of current legislative and non-legislative measures becomes increasingly more blatant."

Ireland is committed to protecting housing rights in five international treaties. The rights needed to be under the Constitution to allow people a recourse to the courts if they are failed by local authorities, said Ms Noeleen Hartigan, of the Simon Community.

Some 10,000 Irish people were homeless, she said, and single men were the least likely to be housed. "Local authorities are not obliged to provide accommodation for homeless people. It's pointless for a single male to be put on the same housing list as families."

The constitutional right to own private property would not be prejudiced by the addition of a right to housing, the ICCL director, Ms Aisling Reidy, said.

"There is nothing inherent in the right to private property to prevent social justice policies being pursued."

However, she said, the right to a home must have "due position" alongside property rights.

Ireland had not yet ratified Article 31 of the European Social Charter, which related to housing rights, she said, and this legislation must be implemented in addition to the constitutional amendment.

The homelessness agency Threshold is due to make a submission to the Oireachtas Committee today.