“Stop ruining our city please. I want to live here for the rest of my life. I don’t want to be kicked out so somebody can have a five-day stay in my own house.”
Take Back The City have occupied the Airbnb headquarters in Dublin to protest their potential involvement in the housing crisis.
The protesters suggest that the popular accommodation website is a large part of the current housing crisis in Ireland.
In a tweet posted on Saturday, Workers Solidarity Ireland said that: “AirBnB is just one part of the story of why we have a housing crisis in which perhaps 80% of Dublin are either paying unaffordable rents or could not now afford the mortgage on the house they are in if they had to buy & borrow at today’s rates.”
You can read their Twitter thread, which explains their issue with the accommodation website in detail, here:
#TakeBacktheCity occupied #AirBnB HQ this morning in #Dublin. There are over 3,000 dwellings in central Dublin on AirBnB that are rented out 365 days a year. In some cases a single landlord owns 8 or more dwellings. https://t.co/b6YN9VQqAT
— Workers Solidarity (@WSMIreland) October 13, 2018
In the video, one protester in the headquarters passionately states that: “It’s a beautiful building. Fair play for what you’ve done with it, but stop ruining our city please. I want to live here for the rest of my life. I don’t want to be kicked out so somebody can have a five-day stay in my own house, please.”
You can see the video in full here.
Take Back The City posted a lengthy statement on their Facebook page, explaining why they visited the headquarters.
The statement addresses Airbnb, and why they feel they have contributed to the current housing crisis, saying:
“As of August 2018 there were 3,165 entire properties for rent on AirBnb in Dublin, compared to 1,329 properties available for longterm rent on Daft.ie.
“This is at a time when there are over 1,350 families homeless in the greater Dublin region alone.
“In 2015, Airbnb lobbied the Irish government to ensure profits made through Airbnb got a substantial tax break.
“In 2017, there was a 63% increase in Airbnb usage across Ireland. During the same time period, homelessness in Ireland increased by 2000 people.”
You can read their statement in full below.
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