On the Shadowy Side of the Street:
The Emotional Toll of Property Dereliction

by William Pattengill

In the Spring 2023 issue of Inside Out Tom Gunning contributed an article which presented an overview of recent clinical studies supporting the practice of outdoor therapy sessions, based on discoveries of how our brains respond to spending time in the natural environment (Gunning, 2023, pp. 17-22). In the Autumn 2022 issue of Inside Out, the review of Blue Mind: How Water Makes You Happier, Well Connected, and Better at What You Do by Wallace J. Nichols (Pattengill, 2022) showed us how riverbanks, beaches, and even swimming pools can provide the same sort of positive benefits for us as forests and parks. The subtle yet profound connections between our external and internal worlds have become ever more apparent as scientific research continues to map the links between them. These truths that we have long sensed through intuition have become validated and quantifiable.

It is inspiring to see how these alternative paths to wellness reveal the importance of our surroundings, and that we can be uplifted, supported, and deeply affected by not only how but also where we choose to spend time. But, like many such energy exchanges, there are two sides to this street. The sunny side may pass by a park with its stately trees and fountains, but we must sometimes walk down the other side, where we are confronted with an assortment of neglected house fronts with broken or boarded-up windows, padlocked doors, and weed-choked gutters. We may avert our eyes from these scenes as we pass by, but nevertheless, there are messages sent and received below the threshold of our awareness.

In my first few years after leaving the U.S. for Ireland, I enjoyed discovering for myself the legendary charm and natural beauty that abounds here. But as the months went by, I became more and more aware of a discordant note in the symphony, or more aptly, dead flowers in the bouquet. I did not expect, nor understand, the legions of derelict buildings slowly crumbling apparently everywhere, in cities, towns, villages, and even the countryside. At first, I blamed the banking troubles of the post- Celtic tiger years but soon realised that this was only a partial explanation. I saw ageing building permits posted that were gathering moss themselves, next to worn notices calling to ‘End Dereliction’, occasionally signs of reconstruction, but overall, there was not much activity of a productive nature apparent at these sites. Those with obvious decades of neglect gave off an air of grimly entrenched permanence.

We are all aware that the issue has been the subject of innumerable news stories and has attracted the attention of the government, but the focus is typically economic and thus political. As time marches on, dereliction grinds on, with little attention to the hidden costs on our mental well-being. Over time, we lose the ability to see the decay and neglect around us and become desensitised, numb, and apathetic. But that doesn’t stop us from continuing to absorb the depressing ambience subliminally, through our bodies and our unconscious. If we choose to find words for what these buildings are saying to those of us struggling to find affordable and liveable housing, it might be: ‘in the great scheme of things, your needs don’t matter.’

In my working life in the U.S., I was involved in building renovations and some real estate transactions, I had been both a renter and a landlord, so I had some understanding of the basic concepts involved… but no clue as to the persistence of long-term, almost institutionalised, dereliction in Ireland. It seemed to contradict other newly formed impressions I had about pride of place, community spirit, and a belief that the common good is valued over the sort of rampant me-first individualism that was one of the forces grating on my nerves in my former homeland. The incongruity inspired me to look for underlying processes beneath economics and politics. What might be the sociological or even psychological drivers operating at a deeper level? Armed with a journalist’s curiosity, and an amateur’s grasp of psychology, I undertook some research.

The statistics and origins of property dereliction vary from one country to the next, so constructs like ‘national character’ or ‘collective self-perception’ could have a major influence on how these unfortunate trends develop. Looking at the worldwide rankings, who would have guessed that characteristically tidy and dutiful Japan would be at the top of this list of dubious distinction? Certainly not I, but such is the case: a hefty 13.6% of properties are empty and neglected. On the surface, we see the economic forces of high taxes on second homes and inheritance, and the actuarial factor of an ageing population, but we don’t need to bother the Japanese psyche with further questions. Number two on the list: at 11%, the Land of the Free and the home of the iconic white-picket-fence American dream (Burke-Kennedy, 2021). Another surprise, to me anyway. Having lived in the U.S. for most of my life, I didn’t recall the same landscape of neglect that I found so striking here in Ireland. This was understandable when I found that the dereliction was concentrated in certain areas ravaged by boom- and-bust real estate speculation or by decline and loss of vital industries: Florida and other areas of the South, and the “Rust Belt” cities, most famously Detroit. (USAFacts.org, 2023). In the San Francisco Bay Area during my 40 years there abandoned buildings of any sort were as rare as for-rent signs and parking spaces.

Ireland did soon appear at number ten, with a rate of dereliction of just over 9%. That translates to 122,000 derelict properties in a 2020 survey, which does not include holiday homes (Burke-Kennedy, 2021). The sad faces of these buildings with their cloud of overhanging gloom seem to peer out at us from almost every street and alley, in every town and village. The economics are not hard to comprehend: simply put, the State’s vacancy tax is far lower than the current rate of the properties’ appreciation, so assuming those values continue their steady climb, there is no incentive to take any action. What is harder to fathom is…. why is this so?

Why does the State enable the property owner to profit from dereliction when his actions cause subtle harm to all who pass by, and more particularly, to those who may live next door? This pervasive harm is what makes dereliction more of an antisocial, irresponsible, and psychologically corrosive behaviour than a mere economic practice, and why the ‘why’ of it should concern everyone working in the field of mental health. All of us are feeling its insidious effects, despite our wish to cross over to enjoy the trees around the pond on the other side of the street.

Here are some other voices commenting on the bigger picture of dereliction: the “ripple effect of empty and sometimes blighted homes doesn’t just threaten property values, it also tears at the fabric of the community, causing mental stress on neighbours, and inviting crime” (Burrell, 2011). “…neglected environments can contribute to mental ill-health. Dilapidated run-down neighbourhoods were found to contribute to anxiety and persistent low mood” (Reynolds, 2016). A survey of attitudes about vacant land and structures in Philadelphia, PA. associated them with fractures between neighbours, crime, feelings of danger and isolation, drug use, stigma, risks to children, as well as the obvious worry about declining property values (Garvin, 2013). Yet the intractability of the problem in Ireland draws a grey cloak of apathy and resignation over the feelings recounted above.

Two of the most high-profile activists publicising this issue are Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry who in 2020 started a social media campaign titled Derelict Ireland (#DERELICTIRELAND) (Freyne, 2022). After living in the Netherlands and the U.K. for decades, they returned to Cork and were dismayed by the rampant vacancy and dereliction compared to what they had observed on the Continent. They began a campaign to illustrate the extent of the problem in Cork City and contrast it with the official records of the City Council, highlighting a glaring disconnect. Their first survey found 340 derelict properties in the city centre, and over 700 within a 2km radius, while the Council registry showed a mere 95 within the wider city limits. Their approach at first was to try to jolt people out of their numbness and selective blindness with a barrage of imagery via Twitter and to call attention to the pervasiveness of these visual blots on streetscapes across Ireland. They invited other concerned citizens to contribute their own posts and comments towards expanding awareness and counteracting official apathy and evasiveness. Even so, some observers asked them to cease and desist, with the perverse logic that such publicity would “give the town a bad name” (Freyne, 2022).

O’Connor believes these derelict sites are “sucking the economic potential out of all our cities, towns and villages, making core urban areas unliveable (and) eating way at our communities” (Freyne, 2022). Sherry says their main concerns are the “social, mental health, and environmental implications” including critical levels of homelessness and the seemingly endless housing shortage (Freyne, 2022). She adds:

When we started, the message from the government was ‘it wasn’t really an issue - dereliction is fine and normal and nothing can be done about it anyway’. From living abroad we know this can be solved…we started with us taking pictures of empty properties and it has become - how do you change Irish culture? (Freyne, 2022)

Another loaded question asked by O’Connor: “Why have we accepted it as a country”? (Freyne, 2022). This brings us back to the unspoken agenda behind the economics favouring dereliction.

O’Connor and Sherry were able to bring their completed report, “This is Derelict Ireland”, to a presentation before an Oireachtas committee in December 2021, including proposals borrowed from other EU countries to address the problem (Freyne, 2022). But is there the ‘cultural will’ to push back against an entrenched status quo? What is the message underlying the lack of data available to the public, the reluctance to enforce penalties upon property owners, the refusal to use available federal funds for Vacant Homes Officers’ salaries, and the overall lack of accountability?

You may recall from civics class that Article 45 of the Irish Constitution asserts that:

the State shall… direct its policy towards securing that ownership and control of the material resources of the community may be so distributed among private individuals and the various classes as best to subserve the common good (Irish Statute Book).

Am I naive to gain from this that the common good should take precedence over the rights of individuals in any conflict of interest? I had to look up ‘subserve’, a word not much in common usage, that sounds suspiciously like ‘subvert’. To my relief, it means ‘to help to further or promote’ (Merriam-Webster. com). Meanwhile, the now-controversial Article 43 provides overt protection to the rights of property owners but no equivalent rights for individuals to housing, unlike most of our fellow EU citizens, so it seems that the current application of Articles 43 and 45 has perhaps subverted “subserve the common good” after all (Irish Statute Book). I also wonder about the use of “…may be so distributed…” which to my mind has perhaps been used to provide a bit of ‘wiggle room’ granted to ‘private individuals’ that over time has been diligently massaged into a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

Might the resulting current enshrinement of landlords’ rights and power possibly be inspired by eight centuries of British land ownership and Irish landlessness, snubbing our contemporary renters in a perverse perpetuation of past inequities? There seems to be agreement that far more of the ‘landed’ are active in government than the ‘landless’, and the romantic welfare-state notion of ‘the common good’ has been slowly eclipsed by the allure of letting ‘market forces’ have their way with us. I also don’t think I am sticking my neck out too far to invoke our ‘national psyche’s’ fascination with American culture, which tends to be harmless fun, except when it leads to replacing the Constitution’s defence of the common good with the dog-eat-dog Darwinian economics that begets wanna-be Trumps in limos driving by tent cities.

From a non-clinical and outsider/observer viewpoint, it also seems plausible that a form of post- traumatic stress disorder could affect a national as well as individual psyche. To illustrate, consider the painting attributed to renowned Cork artist Daniel MacDonald from the mid-Nineteenth Century, dramatically portraying the eviction of a farm family from their thatched cottage by a hard-hearted and elegantly top-hatted bailiff. This tear-jerker of a painting, housed at the Crawford Museum, recently returned to our attention via a Twitter post by a prominent Sinn Fein spokesman, featuring a touched- up contemporary version with Gardai sporting high-vis vests instead of silk toppers (Burns, 2023). The social commentary was well-aimed and drew appropriately loud cries of outrage and pain from those who might be somehow indirectly responsible for the epic housing crisis. Having just celebrated a century of independence from colonial rule, does it seem tragically ironic that some of the oppressive workings of a class power structure still seem to be grinding away, and not too surreptitiously either?

In other countries a common practice that mediates the social impact of derelict properties is ‘meanwhile use’ which provides local governments with various ways of permitting groups or individuals to temporarily take possession of abandoned property, sometimes for long periods of time, thereby bringing function and even beauty to the once forlorn streetscape. According to O’Connor the unofficial practice of ‘meanwhile use,’ popularly known as squatting, should be a ‘civic duty’. Ireland does have a provision for ‘Adverse Possession’ on the books, but it doesn’t quite work out the same way. Someone other than the owner or registered tenant could theoretically claim rights to the abandoned property if they occupy it uncontested for…. twelve years. There is conversely another law that criminalises ‘squatting’, so it seems doubtful that the State is serious about allowing any legal temporary use. Dublin and Cork have both been the scenes of ‘activist squats’ that lasted for several years, but the political climate here does not look kindly upon treading on the toes of the

landlords, even if they are letting trees grow out of their buildings’ roofs and walls. Which may look picturesque and rustically charming in certain lights and angles, especially to Americans like me who never see such sights at home, but the truth is that the roots of these opportunistic plants working into crumbling porous mortar joints can rapidly accelerate the decline and fall of their adopted homes.

Recent news from the quiet country town of Mallow, arriving with ghoulish timing just before Halloween, illustrates the government’s dysfunctional management of dereliction with tragic consequences of a different nature. All I can do is present the details in a rhetorical question, as it just makes my head spin: how can a homeowner die in their own bed, and not arouse the concern of family or neighbours, and then be discovered as a skeleton 22 years later in what looks like yet another neglected house boarded up by the town council?

Savvy property owners have learned how to work the system to their advantage. Derelict buildings can stay off the vacancy registers by repeated sales and permit applications that go nowhere. Councils claim they cannot locate the owners of many sites. Owners allow deterioration to proceed to the point that the building must be demolished rather than restored, in the case of older significant ‘listed’ structures. Furthermore, a building that is unsuitable for use as a dwelling (such as one without a roof) is exempted from Local Property Taxes. As we have seen recently in Cork City, sometimes things get to the point that a part of an old building will pitch onto the footpath or need emergency steel bracing to prevent total collapse. Ms Sherry has said that she almost feels as if she should wear a hard hat on the streets of Cork, and that the city reminds her more of crumbling Havana than shipshape Amsterdam. Meanwhile the short-term cost of such remedial repairs will surely be recouped as property values slowly and surely keep rising.

To indulge in further speculation and conjecture, and perhaps stumbling into pop-psychobabble, could it be said that rampant dereliction is a manifestation of the shadow of the national psyche, obscure in origin, and stealthily working against the common good, for the benefit of a well-connected minority? Although the seeds of the imbalance between the rights of tenants and landlords can be found in Article 43 of our Constitution, it is doubtful that in 1937 its authors could have anticipated that reliance on ‘market forces’ would enable it to be twisted into a weapon turned against the majority in the next century.

I suspect that our TDs and others in government tend to focus on statistics of homelessness and housing prices but are oblivious to the subtler environmental forces at work upon our spirits. It’s a further small step to conclude that few of those public servants are having to start their days walking through neighbourhoods blighted by dereliction. Would any hearts and minds be swayed if the well- tended Georgian next door were magically transformed into a shattered shell of its former grandeur and our test-case minister spent every morning of the next few years dodging falling debris and rats as they scurried from its unhinged doorway?

Sadly, the poetic justice of the above real estate fantasy will not materialise to shock any TD’s out of their comfort zones. If only another St. Patrick could materialise to drive out these malevolent influences operating in the shadows! However, the only practical way forward is the slow grind of political machinery working towards meaningful change, one vote at a time, to eventually defeat the institutionally incentivised dereliction of today. There is fortunately a growing awareness of the width and depth of the problem, so motivated readers can visit websites such as Home for Good to learn more. I hope I am not being naive to believe that the nation can soon find the will to reverse this trend, in the name of social justice and mental health, as it has many times before

William Pattengill is a member of the editorial board and an occasional contributor to Inside Out. After retiring from the home renovation business, he has enjoyed the opportunity to return to his roots as a journalist.

References

Burke-Kennedy, E. (2021, 25 October). Ireland has the 10th highest rate of vacant homes in the world. Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ireland-has-10th-highest-rate-of-vacant- homes-in-the-world-study-finds-1.4709476

Burns, S. (2023, 04 April). Artist behind Gardaí eviction image believes ‘people are missing the point.

Irish times https://irishttimes.com/ireland/housing-planning2023

Dunphy, L. (2021, 14 December). “Dereliction is a pollutant in Irish society…a social crime.” Irish Examiner https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40766103.html

English, E. (2023). Inquest hears man lay dead in boarded up house for 22 years. Irishexaminer.com/ news/munster/arid-412555

Freyne, P. (2022, 03 September). Documenting dereliction in Ireland: ‘Why have we accepted it as country?’. Irish Times Irishtimes.com/property/2022/09/03document

Garvin, E., Branas, C., Keddem, S., Sellman, J., & Cannuscio, C. (2013). More than just an eyesore: local insights and solutions on vacant land and urban health. Journal of Urban Health https://pubmed. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23188553/

Gunning, T. (2023) Green prescriptions: The Secret therapy of trees. Inside Out 99, 17-22.

Irish Property Owner’s Association (2022, March). Squatters’ rights? https://ipoa.ie/squatters- rights/#:~:text=Adverse possession, as it is,12 years with the expressed

Irish Statute Book, https://www.irishstatutebook.ie

Merriam-Webster. Subserve definition & meaning. Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary/subserve#

Murray, C. (2022, 15 May). Vacant homes: The grassroots activists fighting Ireland’s blight of vacancy and dereliction. Buzz.ie https://www.buzz.ie/news/irish-news/vacant-homes-grassroots-activists- ireland-27485730

O’Connor, F. (2023, 15 April). “In a housing crisis, this government is leaving thousands of buildings to rot.” The journal.ie https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/derelict-ireland-6043352-Apr2023/

Pattengill, W. (2022) Book review: Blue mind: How water makes you happier, more connected, and better at what you do. Inside Out 101, 66-67. https://iahip.org/page-1076871

USAFacts.org (2023, 13 Oct.) https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-vacant-homes-are-there-in-the- us?

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