Advocates are pushing for survivors of industrial schools to get priority for social housing

Advocates for survivors of industrial schools, from Sage Advocacy, met with council managers from across Ireland this week to ask them to consider prioritising industrial school survivors for social housing. 

Getting social housing priority significantly speeds up the process of getting a social home. 

Damian O’Farrell, a former Dublin city councillor who is now a project manager with Sage Advocacy, says the state has a particular responsibility to survivors of the industrial schools.  

“Some who missed out on education may not be literate and, as a result, struggle to self-advocate,” O’Farrell says. So some survivors didn’t join the housing list when they were entitled to, he says. 

Those survivors who received compensation from the state but who still don’t have secure housing should be considered for social housing priority, he says. 

“What is required now is more of a transformational response to survivors, which builds on the initial State apology,” he says.

O’Farrell also attended a workshop at Dublin City Council, where councillors are reviewing the council's social-housing allocation rules, including examining who should be prioritised for social housing. 

Councillors say they have only just started a series of workshops, so they haven’t yet decided whether they will extend priority to survivors or to any other groups. 

“I think it's worthy of consideration,” says Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan, who sits on the council’s housing committee. He also wants the council to look at prioritising homeless families with children, he says. 

Councillors say it is almost impossible to weigh up the needs of the different groups of vulnerable people that are looking for social homes. 

“It is just an incredibly difficult situation,” says Social Democrats Councillor Catherine Stocker. “It’s heart-breaking really.”

What is social-housing priority?

In its current rules for allocating social housing, Dublin City Council prioritises people displaced by fire or floods, older people surrendering larger properties, and people living in unfit housing that is going to be demolished.

It also prioritises Travellers, people with disabilities and illnesses that are being exacerbated by their housing conditions, certain care leavers, and other exceptional cases. 

The priority system only works if a small number of people get on that list. If the council extended priority to too many people, priority status would become less likely to get the people who have it a home anytime soon.

“It keeps coming back to the elephant in the room,” says Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor. “We don’t have enough council houses, and so no matter how we try to do it, people will be left out.”

Survivors of industrial schools

Some groups have a persuasive claim. The state incarcerated children in industrial schools without due process, and some were toddlers at the time, says O’Farrell. 

“Survivors experienced a lack of humanity in the regimes and suffered physical, sexual, emotional and spiritual abuse as well as hunger,” says O’Farrell. 

“Often children would be sent out to work in fields in all weathers for no pay and at the loss of their education,” he says.

All of that resulted in many survivors being undereducated, so that some struggle to keep up to date with essential paperwork, including getting on the social housing list, he says. 

“Some survivors were entitled to apply for housing when they turned 18, but didn’t know how to apply,” says O’Farrell.

If they got on the list then, they would likely already have a social home. 

O’Farrell is asking all the councils in Ireland to give serious consideration to those survivors who today still don’t have a permanent home. 

There are around 10,000 left, he says, and around 80 per cent of those are more than 60 years of age. 

Most have accommodation, though, so he estimates that the number that need social homes would be low. 

Green Party Councillor Ray Cunningham, who sits on Dublin City Council’s housing committee, said the issue is complex and is worthy of serious consideration.

“There is a good reason to give it to them, but there are so many deserving groups,” he says. 

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, says councillors need more detailed information on this cohort and to examine their current housing situation. 

For example if most are older, that would be good as the wait for senior citizens homes are not as long, he says. 

Weighing up priority

Councillors say that deciding on who gets priority for social housing is very difficult. 

“So many people really deserve priority,” says Stocker, the Social Democrats councillor “There are some absolutely horrific cases.”

She has met people who are fleeing domestic violence, people whose children have serious illnesses and disabilities as well as people leaving the care system, she says. 

Lately, most people who come to her have complex cases, she says. 

If the council grants priority to all those who deserve it, the priority list will soon be as long as the main list, she says. “It's extremely difficult to determine a scheme of lettings that is fair to anyone,” she says. 

Doolan, the Sinn Féin councillor, asks, “If we make a priority, what does that mean? Does it mean they will be housed?” 

Still, despite that concern, he says the council’s housing committee needs to look again at priority for families who are homeless, which it removed in 2018. 

Back then councillors expected the situation to improve, says Doolan, but seven years on the homelessness crisis is worse than ever. He has met families who are becoming homeless for the third time, he says. 

“I’m not saying that every single homeless person should get priority,” he says, but the council needs to look at families with children who are long-term homeless.

“Homelessness has a terrible, traumatic effect, especially on children,” he says. People who are homeless as children are at higher risk of homelessness as adults. 

“If we are ever to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma, we need to house children very, very quickly in permanent safe homes,” he says.

Cunningham, the Green Party councillor, says that last year, Dublin City Council housed approximately 3,000 households. 

Councillors have requested a breakdown of how many of those had priority, as well as more details about how many homes the council expects to be able to allocate in the coming years he says. 

Over the coming months, through a series of workshops, councillors plan to examine the information and issues before deciding what to do about social housing priority.