
Dublin's Housing Shortage: Families Despair at Rising Rents
Ireland is short hundreds of thousands of homes, and nowhere is it worse than Dublin. This DW film follows three people living the shortage from different angles. Jordyn and Jonathan have spent ten months searching for a permanent place for themselves and their young daughter Delilah, bouncing between friends' couches while cycling through calls to local authorities who can't offer them anything. Justin, a former social worker at a privately run homeless shelter, loses both his job and his home when the shelter is sold, and now scrolls listings where a single bed rents for absurd prices. Conor, finishing a doctoral thesis while squeezed into a tiny apartment with his girlfriend, turns the crisis into a campaign, running for city council and collecting signatures against landlords who leave apartments sitting empty. The camera follows each of them through waiting rooms, phone queues, and cramped flats rather than relying on officials or statistics to make the case. One family eventually finds a way forward; the film is clear that most people in their position do not.