Generation Rent

Abstract

This chapter details how the younger generations and lower-income households are most affected by the housing and homelessness crisis. It shows how huge aspects of their lives have become precarious and insecure, as a result of insecure, low-paid and often part-time jobs, and insecure and unaffordable housing. Generation Rent is the new housing precariat, living with precarious housing, precarious work contracts and an inability to access mortgage credit, alongside unaffordable house prices and rent. It details the structural shift in Ireland’s housing system: decline in home-ownership rates and rise in private rental sector. Generation Rent now extends to the middle-aged and older generations as shown in the increase in the number of people renting in their 40s and 50s. It looks at increasing housing cost overburden rates where young people on low incomes are most severely affected by the issue of housing affordability than young people on higher incomes. Generation Rent also includes Generation Stuck at Home - those forced to live at home with theirparents as they cannot afford to move out into the rental sector, orbecause they have been evicted, unable to meet mortgages, cannot access social housing, or are trying to savefor a deposit.