Homes not Hazards: ‘There's something about these flats'

Friends of the Earth, Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) and the Just Housing research project in Maynooth University are collaboratively launching a photo exhibition ‘Homes not Hazards: ‘There's something about these flats’ in Tailors Hall, Dublin 8 on June 28th, from 11am onwards. This is a powerful new exhibition that brings to light the housing conditions and lived experiences of tenants in local authority homes in Cromcastle Court in Coolock and Emmet Buildings in Dublin 8. It showcases photos taken by tenants in local authority homes in Coolock and Dublin 8, alongside excerpts from interviews with them. We, at Friends of the Earth, will also launch our ‘Warm Homes for All: Tenants for Climate Justice’ campaign’s toolkit and pledge.

Register for the exhibition

The exhibition is open from 11am to the public. A brief discussion to launch the exhibition will take place 1-1:30pm. Friends of the Earth will also be launching the ‘Warm Homes for All: Tenants for Climate Justice’ campaign’s toolkit and pledge to help people take action to lower emissions and demand better quality housing for all. This will be followed by a workshop, starting at 2:30 pm, which will enable people affected by poor housing, and those involved in organising in this area, to come together to discuss how to combat these challenges, and what the solutions are. This workshop will also delve into how we can make our demands heard by the people with the power to improve the situation. 

Our ‘Homes not Hazards’ exhibition is a space to witness firsthand accounts of people living in unhealthy housing conditions—and to make sure their voices are amplified and heard. You'll get to understand the impact that these conditions have on people’s health, well-being and on our communities. It will also show how poorly insulated homes, that rely on fossil fuels for heating, contribute to Ireland’s polluting emissions, negatively impacting both the people living in these homes and our climate - a striking example of climate injustice. 

Our exhibition is also a space to take in this intrinsic interconnectedness between the housing crisis and the climate crisis. The poor quality of the homes people are forced to live in—which are detrimental to our health, finances and the environment—is a component of the housing crisis in Ireland. Current climate and housing policies risk creating a two-tier system, where more well-off homeowners can access retrofit schemes while tenants are left out in the cold. This exhibition goes a long way to show the impacts this has on communities and why we need to urgently step up funding for local authority retrofitting, which, if done in a proper way, can both lower greenhouse gas emissions and deliver a better quality of life for everyone.

Register now for the event!

 

Tailors Hall, Dublin 8