CATU Ireland stands for Community Actions Tenant Union, an organization founded in Dublin in 2019, by a few dozen tenants. And over time they have expanded, currently having branches in places like Galway, Cork, Derry, Limerick, Belfast, among others.
“First and foremost we are a tenants union, so we fight for tenants rights”, explains James Nerney, a member of CATU Galway. “And the community action is the other part, so if you feel there are resources or spaces that are under threat in your community, we are happy to organize around that as well, to combat that”.
One of their tasks is helping members resist evictions, whether legal or illegal, since many landlords don’t follow rules and regulations. “Our strength is in our numbers, while landlords often have money and you know, that’s kind of their strength”, James points out.
CATU is a members-led organisation, founded with monthly dues paid by their members. This allows them to pay the staff and also cover different activities in all their branches.
“The ground was kind of fertile already for CATU to take off”, reflects Criodán Ó Murchú, another member of the Galway branch. “And fundamentally it’s the thing I believe in. I think it’s good that communities in their areas organize and work together on everything, from growing vegetables to protecting their rights as tenants. So it just makes sense. Also to have people as backup, to have support when dealing with a landlord”.
“CATU is getting more visible across the country because of the amount of bad housing situations popping out, is just an important thing for people with in the community to know what is there, and to join”, James adds.
In February of this year, the Galway branch launched a campaign called ‘Homes, Not Holiday Lets’, which seeks to warn about the misuse of short-term lets in the county.
“We have close to 2000 full houses on the airbnb website in Galway county at the moment, and only around 80 to rent on Daft”, James says. “So it’s the damage this imbalance causes in the city and in the Gaeltacht, you have more geard towards tourism, and cultural things for locals having to close. Because Galway is being pushed in this kind of touristy, kind of Disneyland direction. The main thing is to raise awareness about that, also to pressure Council into enacting legislation that’s already there. So like 96% of short-term lets are illegal, because they haven’t got planning permission from the Council, which they are meant to do. It is just not enforced by the Council”.
This campaign officially launched on 15 February, with an event at Kennedy Bar in which they raised 1550 euros. They have also been doing stalls, door knocks and public meetings, in order to raise more awareness. And in the coming months they will continue to carry out other actions, a commendable effort that seeks a solution to the ongoing housing crisis.
