Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union’s (TCDSU) council tonight passed two motions that will see it take a more active stance on lobbying for lower rents and publicly funded student accommodation, after voting to support rent strikers earlier in the night.
TCDSU is now mandated to oppose on-campus rent increases at College committee level, and to lobby the government to build publicly funded purpose-built student accommodation, as well as to pass legislation to protect students living such accommodation.
TCDSU President Laura Beston proposed both motions. Speaking about the motion mandating the union to oppose on-campus rent increases, Beston said that it was “important to write this into officer mandates” as the union had never been officially mandated to oppose on-campus rent increases. She also said that if the motion to support cut the rent was ever removed, this motion would maintain TCDSU’s opposition to on-campus rent increases.
Beston said that publicly built student accommodation was “cheaper and more affordable”, and that “this mandate will ensure that TCDSU will continue to lobby the government for purpose built student accommodation, but at an affordable price”.
In recent years, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and TCDSU have placed the student accommodation crisis at the centre of their agendas. In May 2019, a small cohort of students joined a crowd of 2,000, demanding government action to solve the country’s crippling housing crisis.
Last year, USI decided that instead of its annual pre-budget march for education, it would march for student accommodation as part of the Raise the Roof protest.
The Raise the Roof march, held on October 3rd last year, march drew 3,000 students to Leinster House to meet the national rally. Protestors demanded action be taken to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis.
TCDSU drew a crowd of 400 to Front Square to assemble before joining the national student march for housing.
At the launch of the Raise the Roof campaign, run by the National Coalition for Housing and Homelessness, USI, TCDSU, the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and Take Back Trinity pledged their support for the campaign for better housing.
In July, The University Times revealed that less than seven per cent of purpose-built student accommodation developed in Dublin since 2016 is available for less than €840 per month.
