A Tale of two Busts (and a Boom): Irish Social Housing before and after the Global Financial Crisis

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.

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Document Type
article
ISSN
2336-2839
Volume / Issue
4 / 2
Pages
19-28
Date of publication
27.12.2017

Cite this article

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Norris, M. , M. Byrne 2017. ‘A Tale of two Busts (and a Boom): Irish Social Housing before and after the Global Financial Crisis.’ Critical Housing Analysis 4 (2): 19-28. https://doi.org/10.13060/23362839.2017.4.2.383