Photo exhibit to highlight dire living conditions in Dublin City Council homes

The exhibition, hosted by Friends of the Earth, CATU and Just Housing, showcases the benefits that improved maintenance, regeneration and retrofitting could have to improve health and reduce energy poverty and polluting emissions.

Friends of the Earth will launch the ‘Warm Homes for All: Tenants for Climate Justice’ campaign’s toolkit and pledge

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. The exhibition is open from 11am, with a brief discussion to launch the exhibition taking place from 1-1:30pm, followed by a workshop at 2:30pm to support people to take action. 

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. It’s a space to witness firsthand accounts of people living in poor quality, unhealthy housing conditions and 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 [1].  

The event will also include a brief discussion from 1-1:30pm (journalists are welcome to join this) from residents and groups involved in the project, and a workshop for those people directly affected by these issues [2]. 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.

Aaron Downey, Campaign Lead, Tenants for Climate Justice, said:

“The housing crisis and the climate crisis are deeply linked. People are forced into cold, leaky homes or are left waiting years for much needed regeneration. Tenants are more likely to be stuck paying higher energy bills, burning more fossil fuels, and to be at risk of energy poverty [3]. 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.”

Dr Fiadh Tubridy, Postdoctoral Researcher on the Just Housing project, Maynooth University said:

“Over the past nine months we have been speaking to residents and carrying out surveys in a variety of DCC estates to document the severe issues with maintenance and conditions faced by tenants as well as the lack of progress with upgrading and improving energy efficiency in public housing [4]. As part of this we have been running a photography project to allow tenants to document the conditions they’re living in themselves and bring them to the attention of the public and policy makers. This exhibition is thus an opportunity for tenants who have been ignored and marginalised for many years to have their voices heard and we hope it will also support the ongoing campaigns by local authority tenants for better housing conditions.” 

Aisling Hedderman, Education and Training Coordinator, CATU Ireland:

“All across the country our members and local branches are coming across the same issues in public housing – people being left in dangerous and unhealthy conditions and a lack of respect from local authorities for their tenants. The government should be setting an example for the rest of the housing system by providing high quality modern housing to its tenants, but shamefully this is not the case. The only solution is for tenants to come together and demand better conditions. This exhibition is one way for tenants to make their voices heard, to highlight the unacceptable conditions in their homes and estates and say that enough is enough.”

Notes

1. For more details see https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/warm-homes-for-all/

2. This workshop, starting at 2:30 pm, 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. 

3. https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-silced/surveyonincomeandlivingconditionssilcenforceddeprivation2023/deprivationitems/

4. See reports on housing conditions in Cromcastle Court and Emmet Buildings: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a1125eaaee11494c85a5536f307ab4c3/page/Resources