Former Belfast City Councillor Eoin Ó Broin has launched a new book on functional housing.

Sinn Féin's Housing spokesperson introduced 'HOME: Why Public Housing is the Answer' in Belfast yesterday, 30 May, which sets out a radically different vision to what a functional housing system could look like by prioritising housing as a right and not a commodity.

The book mainly focuses on housing issues in the South, but Ó Broin claims lessons can be learned and applied to radically re-imagine the delivery of public housing in the north.

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Speaking ahead of the launch, Deputy Ó Broin said: "The problem with the provision of good quality, affordable housing goes deeper than the current failures of governments in the South, Westminster and elsewhere.

"Across the western world there are growing problems with access to affordable homes to rent and to buy, rising land costs and the growth of disrupters such as short term letting platforms.

"Successive governments have pulled back from delivering public housing and left it to the market and the private rented sector to fill the gap."

"HOME sets out a different vision. If the political will existed, affordable secure homes to rent and to buy could be delivered, the private rented sector could be reformed and housing inequalities could be tackled," he concluded.

The book is now available at the Sinn Féin Bookshop.

(CM/MH)