On the 7th of March 2023, the 26 county government decided to lift the winter eviction ban heaping fear and insecurity on thousands of people. We, as a Community and Tenants’ Union will fight this.
Tenants are currently facing intense pressure due to massive rent hikes and a dramatically increasing cost of living already without having to live in fear of eviction. We have no doubt that lifting the eviction ban will lead to thousands more people being threatened with homelessness in the 26 counties, something even Darragh O’Brien, the Minister for Housing, has callously admitted, saying that ‘homelessness could rise’. We as a union are clear in our belief that this ban was not lifted merely due to the “concern” that landlords will leave the sector, more so of a genuine shared class interest between our politicians and our landlord class. The Government, advised by the department of housing and attorney general (who is a landlord himself) and lobbied by Cuckoo Funds and the IPOA see money making on housing as more important than a secure affordable home for everyone. We have to fight them.
We believe that evictions carried out as a result of the ban lifting, are unjust and uncalled for. We will fight them. Our communities are strong. Today we need to organise ourselves into a union in every community to stand up and support our neighbours, friends and families. We have prevented eviction together during the pandemic. We turned isolation and fear into collective hope. We kept people in their homes and forced landlords to negotiate. When enough people come together, we can win.
Those who are facing the threat of eviction or want to stand with and support those being pushed into homelessness should join CATU and begin to organise now to resist this incoming wave of homelessness: https://catuireland.org/join.
Ní neart go cur le chéile.