> It’s hard to untangle problems like this from supply and demand of housing. Well said. And the article makes a mess of it - discussing so many things withou

> It’s hard to untangle problems like this from supply and demand of housing. Well said. And the article makes a mess of it - discussing so many things without actually discussing the causes of homelessness - mental illness, lack of skills, the need for daycare, handicaps, and myriad others. Plus, the big one advocates like to pretend doesn’t exist - drug addiction. Why? Because dealing with the root causes is really hard. So much easier to blame something else. E.g at one point it says there’s a total of 1,400 homeless in Dublin and earlier says “3,165 entire properties listed on Airbnb in Dublin, compared with only 1,329 available for long-term rent“. Since only a small portion of long-term rentals are available at any point in time (the total number of long term rentals could be what - tens of thousands?) one might wonder why those numbers were used or if the guardian has vindetta against Airbnb...but reguardless... If there’s 1,329 available for for long-term, why aren’t they putting the 1400 homeless in them? That would leave only 71 homeless! The rest could go to Airbnb...done. Problem solved. But of course, it’s not solved. And as for why homeless are placed in hotels rather than Airbnb or long-term rentals - its likely because its easier to contact a few large entities (hotels) to arrange lodging than it is to contact 1400 individuals. That and the neighbors might not be to happy.