A new approach is needed to housing crisis, not the same old failed policies

AS has so often been the case a single photograph has put an ongoing humanitarian crisis into stark perspective and galvanised the public. The ongoing housing and homelessness crisis has been in the news for years now with harrowing stories of hardship emerging from every county on a near daily basis.

Despite this the majority of the public have, until very recently, paid scant attention to the issue.

Hotels and hostels the length and breadth of the country may have been full of homeless families but, to a large extent, the general public seemed not to care all that much.

Out of sight out of mind, as they say.

The lack of public outrage has given the Government an excuse for inaction. With no public outcry the political consequences of ignoring the problem were relatively minor.

Hard-left parties made noise in the Dáil but their supporters were hardly likely to vote Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil in any case.

Cold electoral thinking came into play. Why waste time and cash pandering to people who won’t vote for you anyway?

Given the number of landlords in the Dáil – who have vested financial interest in the status quo – there has also been a limited appetite among TDs to seriously address the situation.

Last week the situation changed, literally, overnight.

The photos of Margaret Cash and her children sleeping on benches in Tallaght Garda Station shocked and appalled the public.

The images – which were appalling – showed the human impact of the crisis in the starkest possible terms.

Whatever your opinion of Ms Cash – and plenty of anonymous Internet trolls have attacked her in the vilest terms since her story emerged – no one can deny that the sight of a little boy in his school uniform, huddled on a plastic bench in a garda station lobby is anything other than heartbreaking.

Images of suffering children have a powerful way of galvanising public opinion. Think of the dead baby on the beach that parked the Syrian rescue efforts; the naked, napalm-scorched, young girl in Vietnam or images of child starvation in Africa.

The Cash family’s situation is not as serious – they aren’t fleeing war or starving to death – but they, and many others need our help.

The photos of the Cash family sum up how the State continues to fail its most vulnerable. For years the Government have been allowed get away with utterly failed policies that have done almost nothing to deal with the housing crisis.

The developer focussed approach has been an abject failure and it needs to be ditched. NAMA’s remit should be changed to encourage it to provide development lands to councils and housing bodies that can and will provide houses to those who most need them. Most importantly the Government needs to start spending.

Wishful thinking hasn’t worked and the private sector – eyeing enormous profits – hasn’t offered up a magic solution. It is clearly time for a fresh and more aggressive approach to this crisis.

Perhaps Mr Varadkar and Minister Murphy might look to Franklin Roosevelt for inspiration because, right now, thousands of Irish families desperately need a ‘ New Deal.’