Ireland is in the grip of the worst housing crisis in modern history. Hundreds of thousands of families are being denied access to a basic human right - the right to a secure, affordable, high-quality home.

At the extreme end of the crisis thousands of children, women and men are living in hostels, B&Bs, Hotels, Family Hubs and on the streets. 

For decades, successive governments have encouraged private sector domination of almost every aspect of housing. This approach has delivered economic and social disaster.   

UP Housing (Universal Public Housing) is a proposed new system of public housing that would be open to everyone that is in need of a home, regardless of their income. 

Everyone means everyone - nurses, teachers, pensioners, construction workers, carers, students, retail workers, the self-employed, the temporarily unemployed and everyone else that is need of a home would all live side by side in well-designed UP Housing developments.

Each family would have total security of tenure, including inter-generational tenancies in a mature system. And each family would only pay an affordable rent linked to their income.

UP Housing is fundamentally different to the current model of 'social housing' that is only open to those on low and very low incomes.  'Social housing' is structurally designed to create concentrations of poverty and concentrations of the problems associated with poverty.  

UP Housing, on the other hand, is designed for people of all incomes, classes, ages and family types to live, work and play together in stable, balanced communities. UP Housing is not simply another version of 'social housing'.  It's an entirely different approach to how we build not only physical housing, but also communities and our society. 

Unlike 'social housing', a new system of UP Housing would be self-funding over time. The rent paid by tenants and the indirect benefits to the economy of a stable, affordable, housing sector would more than pay for the construction and maintenance costs of a new system of UP Housing.

European cities like Vienna have had hugely successful universal public housing for many decades. If it works there, it can work in Ireland too.  

The state has the land, finance, expertise and legal powers to make Universal Public Housing a successful reality. The only thing that's missing is the political will to make it happen.

By signing this petition you are helping to build that political will. Together we can create a demand for UP Housing that the government and wider political establishment will not be able to ignore. 

You can read more about UP Housing at the Éirígí For A New Republic website here.

Go raibh maith agat.