Care, Health and Housing

Highlighting the substandard living conditions faced by many residents in social housing communities in Ireland, this book provides key information on housing quality at the community level and identifies practical solutions in the health, community care and housing sectors. Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Housing is where societies declare whose lives matter. This book brings together international scholars and practitioners to explore how inadequate housing produces avoidable harm and why today's housing crisis must also be understood as a crisis of care. Rather than treating housing as a technical or market issue, the book reframes it as an infrastructure that shapes health, dignity, democratic participation, and everyday life. Drawing on research across public health, sociology, geography, planning, law, building science, and community practice, it introduces the City of Care as a framework for reconnecting housing, health, and public responsibility. This timely resource offers actionable strategies to translate care into repair, public responsibility, and healthier, more just cities.