Holding landlords accountable and creating a lasting presence on campus were some of the key issues explored at the first meeting of Trinity College Dublin Renters’ Union this evening.
The union also addressed the structure of the organisation, its aims and wider links to the Community Action Tenants’ Union (CATU).
The meeting, attended by approximately 30 participants over Zoom, was hosted by the union’s Chair Liam Kiernan and featured contributions from its officers and Paulie Doyle from CATU.
Participants were introduced to the union’s officers, including Vice Chair and Membership Officer Darragh O’Reilly, Policy Officer Tara Gilsenan, Treasurer and Secretary Julie Smirnova, Disability Officer Niamh Herbert, Legal Officer Adaeze Chukwuogor, International Officer Morgan Hildula and Communications Officer Eva O’Beirne.
Each officer will have a sub-committee responsible for specific parts of the union’s functioning.
Speaking to attendees, Doyle, a CATU organiser, described how collective action can be used to impose “financial and reputational consequences” to exploitative landlords.
Doyle described how techniques such as doorstepping, picketing and mass-texting landlords can produce results when there are tenancy disputes.
Last year, campus activist group Cut the Rent hoped to bring about major changes for students living on campus by holding a rent strike. However, the group ultimately opted not to go ahead with such a strike due to insufficient numbers of residents willing to withhold rent from College.
Kiernan explicitly said that the new renters’ union aims to be different to previous campus groups with similar aims.
“We do want to create an organisation that can last a bit longer than some previous organisations we’ve had on campus that are basically just a Facebook page and after the people who set it up leave, it just kind of falls apart.”
A key emphasis of the new group is that it will be member-led when it comes to policy, with Gilsenan telling the meeting that “it’s not really a top-down thing that’s not how this works, we want members to tell us what you want”.
The group’s aims include seeking a 25 per cent rent reduction for the 2020/21 academic year followed by a permanent 10 per cent reduction and a commitment from College that students can terminate their tenancy without financial penalty for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is currently planned for the union’s AGM to take place before the end of the academic year.
