“USE it or lose it” was the message to emerge from a walking tour of derelict properties in Limerick City which brought more than a hundred people on to the city streets last Saturday.
The ‘Derelict Limerick Walking Tour’ was held to highlight the need for radical action to address the housing crisis. Participants stopped at several buildings where speakers drew attention to various facets of the city’s worsening vacancy and dereliction problem.
Speakers included representatives from housing charities Doras, and Novas, union organisations SIPTU and CATU as well as political parties People Before Profit, Social Democrats, Sinn Féin and the Labour Party.
The event was organised as part of the National Homeless and Housing Coalition campaign to address the worsening housing crisis. Further actions are being planned locally and nationally to put pressure on the government to address the crisis in a way that benefits citizens more than international investment firms.
Anne Cronin of Novas spoke about the development of Arthur’s Quay park and the currently vacant Tourist Information Centre. She described how wonderful an addition the park was to city life and denounced plans to construct a road through it to facilitate an extension of the Tourist Information Centre for use as a grocery shop.
University of Limerick architecture student Anna Blair spoke about derelict Georgian buildings and the lost opportunity of these buildings not being put into public use.
“It can feel like we have no say over how we live, where we live, or how our city develops. But people do have agency. It’s up to us to use our people power to demand change and to reclaim our city’s empty buildings,“ she said.
Cian Prendiville of People Before Profit denounced the wasted opportunity that the current Opera Site development plan represents.
“There are a number of issues with the plan including the lack of a residential component. We need to push for this development to have at least a 50 per cent residential aspect to avoid it becoming a dead-zone in the evening. It would also inject about 350 apartments into the city housing supply which could be transformative,” he said.
Social Democrats councillor Elisa Donovan explained the many mechanisms the council have at its disposal to bring derelict and vacant properties back into use. She encouraged the council to be more proactive with their use of these mechanisms.
Doras chief executive John Lannon spoke of the most marginalised in Irish society and the particular problems they face with the housing crisis. He deplored the unacceptable living conditions that immigrants are being asked to accept in the direct provision system.
Ruairi Fahy of the Community Action and Tenants Union (CATU) said that despite generous grants, property owners were still choosing to turn their properties into hotels and high-end offices for the higher profits these developments return.
“If we want to create vibrant communities in Limerick city, we must move away from a private investment led model of housing to one based on local, democratically decided needs,” he added.
Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan TD spoke at the Watergate Apartments of the rising rents experienced by the tenants there which is putting what once was affordable accommodation out of reach of lower income families.
Labour Party councillor Conor Sheehan and his Sinn Féin counterpart John Costello agreed that the former Mary Street Garda Station should be restored and converted into residential accommodation or as community space. They said that the plan to redevelop it as luxury offices would contribute to an oversupply of office space in the city.
