The political frame of a housing crisis: Campaigning for the right to housing in Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the politicized discourse employed by housing movement to shift long-standing narratives around housing, that attempt to shape the national debate over Ireland’s housing crisis. Amid issues of housing insecurity and affordability, homelessness in particular has become a hotly debated issue over the past decade and images of increasing family homelessness as a consequence of the housing crisis have sparked public outrage. Campaigners and activists have challenged the government’s market-based policy responses and demanded housing that is accessible to those who need it. The results show that while the narratives used by activists to change housing policy were somewhat successful in raising the issue of homelessness as a housing problem, the movement was less effective in motivating public concerns around housing as a fundamental right and in building a larger mass housing movement.