Dr Mary Murphy, Maynooth University The challenge of public housing , (or) how can public housing make a non residual contribution to Ireland’s housing stock

Addressing the housing crisis Welcome conference integrated overview – where does public housing fit in? Will an expanded social housing programme create future segregation? Learning from elsewhere (good/bad), learning from Irelands mistakes/successes Barriers to delivering an expanded social housing programme Narrative of residualisation, market values and poor institutions Ensuring sufficient access to decent secure housing. Land Development Agency? The power of ideas, breaking cognitive locals with new ideas? A better old idea? A model of public housing = unitary system based on a cost rental with HAP available to all public, social and private tenants

What causes housing segregation Housing inequality a function of economic inequality Mumbai, Detroit, Mexico from above National geographic

Segregation in high quality context Hedge divides private/affordable tenants (south London)

Cues from international models (Barry O’Brien) Learning from elsewhere: good practice Vienna Ambition: Sweden, 1,000,000 homes 1965-1974 - institutional capacity in Irish past. Post War UK – rebuilding programme

Vienna – 2/3s 1.9m in ‘non market’ mixed income cost rental housing Continuity and innovation Social mixing Developing urban areas Diversity and integration Citizen participation Climate and environmental Use and design of public spaces Developing existing stock Building on the outskirts The role of art Poor social integration and 8,000 homeless – Homeless rehoused in Housing First private rental (Allen 2019)

Learning from Irish mistakes- 1980s crisis = residualisation Surrender Grant - focus on ownership 1980’s, planning failures, poor quality build, poor local estate management, anti social behavior, mono housing – rental options, demographic features, housing types and ration led letting policy Families in residence before adequate infrastructure of social and commercial services (Fahey 2019) Recession, social exclusion, inability to drive integrated local economic and social development. – tenure of last resort (Brooke 2001) O Connell and Fahey (1999:37 ) ‘residualisation rather than mass housing model’ O’Connell (1999) ‘stigma, prejudice and distorted imagery’ Fahey and Watson (1995:190) ‘tenants most marginalised and vulnerable’ Conflation of a small proportion of residents with the characteristics of all residents (Devereux et al, 2011) Stigmatisation of social housing a problem (Corcoran, 2014) Norris and Byrne (2016) – perceptions of stigma

‘Narrative of failure’ of public housing, but segregation an economic inequality and private rental matter too .. LDA , Niall Cussen ( Sept 2018) “huge social housing developments were built, often with negative consequences” Deeply embedded and internalised in national and local authority culture Different urban and rural dynamics and stories but weak local authority capacity Changing perceptions - Byrne and Norris 2016 (Cluid) Other policy attempts to avoid segregation Economic inclusion, local development Rent allowance exclusion zones (Ballymun regeneration) Spatial segregation in HAP (Norris 2018) Migrant spatial settlement patterns (DCC 2006)

Learning from Irish successes (value of long term view back and forward) 100 years of public housing – remember model for first 50 years Ellen Rowley, Joe Cleary, Ruth McManus (1930’s Marino/Drumcondra) 1940’s Crumlin O Toole (2018)– reclaim narrative from snobbery and prejudice 1970’s Longitudinal study – Dublin Tony Fahey (1999) 1980’s CDI Housing Policy Report 4,500 West Tallaght - evolve beyond single-tenure origins to ‘large, successful, mixed residential district that, despite shortcomings, is now well integrated into the surrounding urban fabric’

Postcard view, Ferguson Road HOUSING: Drumcondra Estate, Dublin Corporation, 1927–29 misleading negative perceptions of the classic large scale single tenure model (Fahey 2019)

HOUSING: Drumcondra Estate, Dublin Corporation, 1927–29

TOWNSHIP: Public Buildings – Drumcondra Grand Cinema (now Tesco) and Library (1937)

Recent focus on expanding public housing allows us explore some barriers to public housing The Vienna Model – The challenge of lifting an entire system into our existing system (Allen) Path dependence (Pierson 2000) Challenge of policy transfer – (Daguerre and Taylor Gooby 2004) Clear communication and policy networks Opportunity to solve a problem – What problem? What crisis? Goodness of fit – with institutions and values

Values underlying Irelands (liberal) welfare regime Mixed delivery.. market preference, primary mechanism of Rebuilding Ireland Vicious circle, fear that regulation will decrease market supply… more embedded Underlying maintenance of ideology Political and managerial fear of residual public housing Capacity of local public institutions – faith in themselves

weak autonomy of Irish Local Government weak autonomy of Irish Local Government .. internal local authority capacity to implement a new and better policy legal protection, organisational autonomy, iinstitutional depth, fiscal autonomy, financial self reliance, borrowing autonomy, ffinancial transfer system, and aadministrative supervision, central or regional access

Better way of ensuring access to decent housing? The power of ideas (Mary Blyth 2016) Is there a new idea (or can we pull together existing ideas, Brooke 2001) Does the new idea have a ‘goodness of fit’ – with irish institutions and values Can we break a cognitive lock? Misleading negative perceptions of the classic large scale single tenure model (Fahey 2019) Ghettos Enda McGrane 2019)

Root & Branch reform of public housing model Norris and Hayden (2018) - ‘Bricks to Benefits’ – Long term trend – before the crisis Sustainability, affordability, efficiency, viability, value for money issues for Irish council housing (Norris and Hayden, 2018). Anti cyclical financing model (Aidan Culhane 2019) Differential rent to cost rental Management challenges associated with social housing (residualisation - hot potato) Letting policy to include downsizing policy Maintaining stock - no right to buy but new right to equity

A new idea? Unitary cost rental housing system? No national model –urban and rural require different models? A new public housing model in a unitary cost rental system with HAP as a private and public rental housing support – (Kieran McQuinn (2019), affordability in PR) Long leases, secure but different forms of tenure New models – for example ‘free sale’, tenant equity recouping investment in holding shared equity in improvement, inside/outside Diversity in provision including step-down in local community settings – reimagining letting and successor policy

Look to the future, inspired by the past? An expanded social housing programme need not create future segregation or residualised housing But considerable value and institutional barriers to delivering an expanded social housing programme? Alternative lies in unitary cost rental model to ensure everyone has access to decent affordable housing? Build on 100 years of public housing – historical role of state, 350k houses in quality mixed communities , Values: 1870’s – ‘Three Fs’ Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, Free Sale - tenant can sell interest in holding to incoming tenant