‘The houses are there but the rich have the keys’ – Lasair Dhearg Derry
The most recent statistics for Derry, indicate that there are 2,732 homeless people here. That’s over two and a half thousand people who have nowhere to call home. Contrast this with the fact that there are 1,252 empty houses.
Derry’s housing issues could be more than halved at the stroke of a pen, and could literally be solved overnight if the political will existed to seize all empty housing. Across the Six Counties as a whole, there are over 20,000 languishing on housing waiting lists, whilst over 19,000 houses lie empty.
And this is not a new issue. For as long as this state has existed there has been homelessness. Why? Because this government and every government that preceded it is firmly wedded to an economic system that favours the right of private property over the right to shelter and fair housing. They believe that capitalism, and the right to make profits from the already beleaguered and miserable masses is paramount.
They believe that a landlord can own as many houses as they want, to gather them up and build their own little empires that will extract as much money from the already empty pockets of those that can barely rent, let alone own, a single house.
They enforce this economic system and do little to change it because they, in many cases, are landlords themselves. Why would they vote away their own income?
This state and the economic system it enforces has failed. They have had their chance. The only resolution is the complete seizure of all vacant housing across the island, to be handed over to those who need it.
The houses are there but the rich have the keys!
