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Norris, Michelle
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Norris, Michelle
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Norris, Michelle
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- PublicationRegenerating Run-Down Public Housing Estates: A Review of the Operation of the Remedial Works SchemeThe development of the housing systems of western European countries can be divided into two broad periods. The first, which stretched from the end of World War I to the beginning of the 1970s, was characterised by a decline in the number of privately rented dwellings and a parallel growth in the proportion of the population living in owner-occupied and social-rented housing. In many countries this occurrence can be attributed to the demolition of dwellings in the private-rented tenure as part of state-sponsored slum clearance programmes and their replacement with social housing. The second period coincided with the crisis in the funding of state welfare provision in the 1970s, which marked the end of the expansion of the social-rented tenure in most European countries. By the early 1980s, policy makers were beginning to take notice of the growth of social problems in this sector and of the poor standard of many social-rented dwellings especially those constructed using the industrialised building techniques that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s (Harloe, 1995). By the mid-1980s, building of social housing in many European countries had declined and new policy initiatives in this area increasingly focused on the regeneration of existing stock. For many politicians and policy commentators of this time, largescale public housing estates had come to be seen as the cause of poor housing conditions rather than the solution to them (Power, 1997).
214 - PublicationTenure Mixing to Combat Public Housing Stigmatization: external benefits, internal challenges and contextual influences in three Dublin neighbourhoods(University College Dublin. Geary Institute, 2018-01-08)
; ; Combatting stigma in public housing is a key concern among policy makers in the Republic of Ireland and internationally and this paper critically assesses the mechanism most commonly employed to achieve this – ‘income mixing’ or ‘poverty deconcentration’ of public rented neighbourhoods by encouraging households with a wider mix of incomes to live there. This is most commonly achieved by ‘tenure mixing’ - providing private housing alongside public housing on the grounds that occupants of the former tenure tend to have higher incomes than occupants of the latter. To do this the paper draws together empirical research on three public housing neighbourhoods in Dublin - Ireland’s capital and largest city - and insights from the critical geography and urban studies literature, to critically examine the effectiveness of tenure mixing as a public housing destigmatizing tool. The analysis presented here demonstrates that tenure mixing often produces contradictory results – in terms of reduced external stigma but heightened internal or within neighbourhood stigmatization. It links these outcomes to the policy and socio-economic contextual factors which we argue which play a central but underappreciated role in shaping the implementation of tenure mixing and its impact on public housing stigmatization.1527 - PublicationCombating social disadvantage in social housing estates: the policy implications of a ten year follow up study(Combat Poverty Agency/Department of Social Protection, 2011-06)
; ; ; This paper presents a policy-focused report on the research project 'Progress and Problems in Social Housing Estates: A ten-year follow-up study'. The project was carried out between late 2007 and early 2009 in seven local authority housing estates in Ireland and took the form of a follow-up to a study of the same estates which had been carried out in the period 1997-1999. The seven estates examined in the study are: Fatima Mansions and Finglas South in Dublin City; Fettercairn, Tallaght, in South County Dublin; Deanrock estate in Togher, Cork City; Moyross in Limerick City; Muirhevnamor in Dundalk and Cranmore in Sligo town811 - PublicationThe Political Economy of Housing in Ireland(Oxford University Press, 2021-09-01)
; ; ; A decade after the global financial crisis (GFC) commenced in 2008, the Irish housing system remains convulsed by multiple crises. Over 10,000 homeless people are living in emergency accommodation - a figure that has grown continuously over recent years, while housing supply, both of private dwellings and social housing, has plummeted (Byrne and Norris, 2018). The private rental sector, which has grown significantly over the last ten years, has seen average rent increases of 60% in just five years (Nugent, 2018). Despite a seemingly relentless series of new policy initiatives, a great deal of political and media attention and a marked recovery in national and households incomes, the problems in the Irish housing system have not been resolved and, particularly for low income households, have become more acute.110 - PublicationA Qualitative Study of LGBTQI+ Youth Homelessness in IrelandThis report on the experiences of LGBTQI+ young people who find themselves without a home emerges from an exploration of the causes and solutions to youth homelessness which Focus Ireland has been engaged with for over 30 years. An important dimension of that work has been our engagement with researchers and activists across the world. Around 5 years ago, during a seminar at which we had invited Professor Steven Gaetz and Melanie Redman to talk to us about the Canadian ‘A Way Home’ youth homeless strategy, one of the slides included a statement that – ‘if you are not looking at LGBTQ homelessness you are not dealing with the causes of youth homelessness.’ An intern with the Advocacy team asked what was known about the issue in Ireland. This report can be traced back to the fact that the answer to that question was ‘nothing at all’.
548 - PublicationReforming Local Authority Housing Management: The Case of Tenant Participation in Estate ManagementFor most of the period since the tenure was founded in the late 19 th century, the manage ment of local authority housing has been neglected by both central and local government. From the perspective of the former, new house building rather than management, has traditionally been the overriding concern. This attitude is not surprising in view of Ireland’s housing conditions which, until recent years, have compared unfavourably to other European Union (EU) countries both in terms of housing standards and number of dwellings per head (European Union, 2002). Nor is it atypical in the wider Europ ean context where central government influence on social housing has traditionally been exercised mainly by means of capital contributions to building costs, which has limited its control over and interest in housing management (Cole and Furbey, 1994). Ho wever, Ireland is unusual in the extent to which the main providers of social housing, have devoted scant attention to its management. This oversight on the part of local authorities is linked to the introduction of the tenant purchase schemes in the 1930 s in rural areas and the 1960s in urban areas (Fahey, 1998b). The high rate of privatisation required very limited management capacity from housing departments, whose responsibilities have traditionally not stretched far beyond allocating new dwellings an d collecting the rent for the couple of years before tenants exercise their right to buy (O’Connell, 1999).
501 - PublicationAsset Price Keynesianism, Regional Imbalances and the Irish and Spanish Housing Booms and BustsIreland and Spain were amongst the European countries which experienced the most severe economic and fiscal problems following the global financial crisis. The proximate causes of these economic crashes have been explored in-depth by researchers and governments, who have highlighted strong parallels between the policy, regulatory and economic factors which underpinned them. In both countries residential property price inflation increased dramatically from the late 1990s driven by increased availability of cheap mortgages but unusually was accompanied by marked growth in new house building. Thus, following the international credit crunch in 2008, a simultaneous contraction in both mortgage credit and house building occurred in Ireland and Spain, which precipitated a marked knock-on decline in the employment, tax revenue and consumer spending which the housing boom had underpinned. This paper argues that the Irish and Spanish housing booms and busts are similar not just in terms of scale and proximate causes but also in terms of fundamental causes. In both countries the housing boom/bust cycle was underpinned by a suite of macroeconomic policies which aimed to use asset price growth to underpin rising demand and economic growth, or in other words achieve what Robert Brenner (2006) terms 'asset-price Keynesianism'. This approach was particularly attractive to the Irish and Spanish governments because it enabled them to resolve historical legacies of industrial underdevelopment and regional imbalances by generating construction jobs in underdeveloped areas. As a result of the latter, local/regional governments in both countries played a key role in facilitating the implementation of this policy.
890 - PublicationSocial HousingThis chapter sketches the most significant trends in the development of the social housing provision in this country from the mid 1800s, until the contemporary period. The opening part of the chapter examines the early housing legislation; explains how it shaped the system of social housing provision and assesses the contribution which social housing providers made to addressing housing need in urban and rural areas. In the second part of the chapter, a more in-depth examination of the development of the social housing sector during the last two decades is presented. This section concentrates on efforts to diversify the methods of providing social housing and the increasing focus on the part of central government on qualitative issues such as efficient housing management and the regeneration of difficult-to-let social rented estates, in addition to its traditional quantitative concern of ensuring that supply of social housing matches need. On the basis of this dis cussion, the concluding comments to the chapter quantify the achievements of the social housing sector in Ireland and identify some of the key questions facing the sector at the current time.
814 - PublicationTraveller Accommodation Expert Review: Prepared by an independent Expert Group on behalf of the Minister of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government(Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, 2019-07)
; ; This report sets out an integrated set of recommendations intended to improve the effectiveness of the arrangements for providing accommodation for members of the Traveller community, which were established by the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998. These recommendations address four key themes: - delivery reflecting need, - planning, - capacity and resources and, - governance. The review concludes that the arrangements established by the 1998 Act have significant strengths and have enabled the delivery of significant amounts of accommodation for Travellers, but they have failed to meet the full scale of accommodation need among this community. This is evidenced by the extremely high rate of Traveller homelessness, the increase in numbers of Traveller households sharing accommodation and living in overcrowded conditions, and the uneven record of delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation among local authorities and also approved housing bodies. Therefore, it is time to overhaul the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998 and other relevant legislation and policies which impact on accommodation provision for Travellers.414 - PublicationWhither Irish Citizens’ Social Rights in (post) Brexit Europe: An Analysis of East/West and North/South challenges(2019-09-19)
; On the 23rd June 2016 the United Kingdom voted in the ‘Brexit’ referendum to leave the European Union. The nature of the final agreement between the UK and the EU regarding their relationship after Brexit is as yet uncertain. However, irrespective of the details of the agreement reached, there is no doubt that Brexit will have enormous implications for businesses, trade and the economy, governments and policy makers and also for citizens of Ireland. Geography and history have forged close economic and social ties between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, which have been strengthened and extended by the open borders, trade and travel enabled by these jurisdictions’ EU membership since 1973. The process of UK withdrawal from the EU will disrupt these ties and will require the introduction of alternative legal and policy arrangements and services to facilitate continued co-operation and economic and social links between Ireland and the UK. Policy and legal adjustments will also be needed to manage relations between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland.138