22 Questions for 2022: Labour & Housing

The Community Action Tenants Union was formed in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit. In just two years, they have amassed over 1,500 members, across nearly 20 branches in Dublin, Belfast, Maynooth, Galway, Dún Laoghaire and Cork. From assisting renters with understanding their rights to preventing alleged illegal evictions, CATU is a glimmering force against a stark housing crisis.

In terms of what the organisation’s goal is for the year ahead, their communications officer Mitch outlined that CATU wants to “continue being a support for our members whenever they need us”.

“We especially want to get the message out that we’re here for everyone. A lot of the time we can be perceived as a young, white organisation. We want minorities to know that we can support them too.”

The housing crisis has haunted the Irish public for as long as some of us can remember. But according to Mitch, we don’t have to rely on governments to change the status quo for renters in Ireland: “CATU wants to equip tenants with the knowledge to challenge landlords directly without relying on third parties.”

According to the Central Statistics Office, 22.7 per cent of people living in subsidised rented accommodation were living below the poverty line before rent was factored in. Once housing costs are taken into account, this rises to 55.9 per cent.

In a country where financial subsidies don’t work, it feels like the government almost wants us to rent forever. And why wouldn’t they? One in five TDs is a landlord.

The pandemic has made procuring a place to life even more difficult. And circumstances definitely haven’t been helped by the Government’s reluctance to impose rent freezes or rent caps.

“There was a huge adjustment period at the start of the pandemic,” explained Mitch.

“We had to figure out how to meet and organise ourselves amongst this national crisis. We had so many people reaching out to us looking for help, not knowing how they could afford rent.”

CATU has gained national attention for its efforts to prevent evictions during the past two years. But assisting people being thrown out onto the street is just a small part of the work CATU does. Mitch outlined how CATU members frequently band together to create email, social media and phone campaigns to demand landlords cease their malpractices.

Tenant protection is paramount to CATU, and exploitation certainly seems to be on the rise. According to an investigation by the Irish Examiner, landlords have been utilising the housing crisis to solicit sex from tenants. One landlord from Limerick was reportedly advertising a room for a single woman “with a twist”. The ad also highlighted that reduced rent was available for “occasional fun.” The landlord emphasised that sexual activity was required on a weekly basis in return for rent of 200 euro for the first month and 250 euro per month after that.

Mitch acknowledges that the relationship between landlords and tenants has become more fractious over the past two years, mainly because landlords are not facing any consequences. “It hasn’t necessarily gotten worse but the pandemic has definitely revealed the deep cracks and inequalities that exist in this country.”

But what would consequences for landlords look like? “Well, in an ideal world there wouldn’t be landlords,” joked Mitch. “But seriously, genuine accountability would look like more than a slap on the wrist.”

“A real change we would push for is an actual landlord registry. If you want to be a landlord, whether public or private, you have to list who you are, what you do and your address – effectively giving a landlord the same accountability as a business.”

Ireland adopted the Nordic or Swedish Model in March 2017 which criminalises the purchase of sex, but not the selling of sex. The government hoped this system would tackle human trafficking. Instead, it has made sex workers reluctant to report exploitation, abuse and other crimes.

Kate McGrew moved to Ireland from New York in 2008, and resumed her sex work career in Ireland as it was the best suited work for her to support herself as a performing artist. She is currently the co-convener of the European Sex Workers Alliance and is currently writing a book with Mercier Press.

According to Kate, it is the association of sex work with criminalisation and the stigma around it that has led to a lack of consultation with sex workers regarding laws that directly impact their profession: “As with many other movements, we can tell that the younger generations get it. It is logical to perceive sex worker rights as a labour rights issue. Sex work is a hidden labour, it is an economic activity that is viewed with tolerance and practicality in some places, and prejudice and vitriol in others.”

“Here, the criminalisation of our work and stigmatisation of our lives is a suffering in the direct lineage of oppressions from the church and state, who brought us Magdalene laundries and mother and baby homes. “

Dublin once had the largest red-light district in Europe. Known as the Monto, it was effectively shut down due to the combined efforts of religious organisations and police. Sex work is far from a new profession on this island but extreme stigma prevents much of the population from understanding why sex workers need adequate government support.

When asked about what can be done to facilitate safe sex work in Ireland, Kate had one goal in mind: decriminalisation.

“We need for politicians to meet with us and get behind our decriminalisation bill. We need to fully decriminalise sex work in Ireland. We need Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, to meet with us as promised for this last phase of the review of the current criminalization law which has only made our lives more precarious, lead to escalated violence and harassment against us, loss of income, arrest and even imprisonment.”

According to numerous sex worker activist groups, the Criminal Offences Bill (2015) and Sexual Offences Act (2017) have made sex workers less likely to report dangerous clients to gardaí. The Sexual Offences Act prohibited the purchase of sex and increased penalties for sex workers sharing premises. The maximum fine for “brothel keeping” increased from €1,000 to €5,000 and the maximum jail term doubled from six months to one year.

Sex workers are actively punished for attempting to live together – if someone were to discover their profession they could lose their home and livelihoods as they have no way of proving they don’t use their residence for their services. If they are assaulted at work and choose to report it, their landlord or employer will be arrested. They are bound by law to suffer in silence as there is no reward for coming forward, only stigma and perhaps retaliation by clients or co-workers. 

According to Kate “the full decriminalization in New Zealand and parts of Australia is the closest there is to a legal model that might work best.” She also emphasised that any hypothetical policies “would need to include removal of criminalisation of our work and our income, and instate legal vetted options for ways of working.”