THEY SAY TRUTH is stranger than fiction and so it proved last week, as I opened message after message from readers and friends alike, all with the same news story attached. The news story was almost identical to the fictional story I had just published in my new novel, In Glass Houses, which features a luxury New York apartment complex whose social housing tenants are denied access to the premium features in the building.

In case you missed it, the news story that emerged this week concerned an apartment development in Dublin whose social housing tenants had complained to Dublin City Council (DCC) and the housing body Tuath that they didn’t have access to many of the building’s amenities, like the gym, sauna, cinema room and library and thus felt like they were living in a ‘two-tier’ situation.

I got the first inkling of an idea for my novel a few years ago, as I overheard someone prevaricating over buying an apartment in a luxury complex because it would likely mean living alongside a social housing tenant. If they could afford to buy on a higher floor it would not be an issue because the social housing units were restricted to the ground and first floor, and of course, the price went up with each storey.

I knew immediately that I was going to write a novel that dealt with social housing tenants in a luxury building, which felt like a perfect microcosm for society. Wouldn’t it be particularly cruel, I thought, as I developed the story, to exclude my few ‘lucky’ cost-rental tenants from all the extra trimmings of living in a luxury apartment, so they could see how the other half lived but not enjoy any of the privileges themselves?

Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, to segregate my characters based on the totally random and unfair basis of their class or privilege or disadvantage or generational wealth? Wouldn’t it really push my characters to their limits, I thought, and set things up nicely to introduce all the things you want in a thriller — tension, conflict, a sense of injustice and maybe even motive for murder…?

But perfect conditions for a crime novel, do not make good conditions for real life.

One of the goals of the Part V planning regulation in Ireland, apart from ensuring new developments would deliver some much-needed affordable, cost-rental and social housing, was to reduce housing segregation, or, if you like, ghettoisation.

The reasons why social housing tenants in Dublin are being denied access to amenities in their complexes are unclear. A spokesperson for Tuath told the Irish Independent that one property development in question is “a multi-block development with separate ownership and management arrangements” and that “certain amenities are privately operated as part of a distinct management structure attached to other blocks and sit outside Tuath’s ownership or control.”

A spokesperson for the DCC said, “Part V legislation is specifically focused on housing provision only and does not extend to funding for ancillary amenities such as gyms, cinemas or other facilities.”

Made to feel like second-class citizens

Perhaps it’s time for the legislation to look at how to provide access to those amenities or waive management fees so that social tenants aren’t made to feel like second-class citizens.

Housing is one of the biggest problems we face in our society today. But I also see a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, and obviously where you fall on that spectrum influences your ability to have housing security.

I am in the very lucky position of owning my own home now, but before that I rented for twenty years. I have received the dreaded letter from a landlord telling me I had six weeks to vacate as a family remember needed the property.

I still remember the panic that flooded my body every time I got even a benign text from a landlord.

Just seeing their name flash up on my phone’s screen was enough to send the cortisol racing around my nervous system. I still remember debating whether to contact a landlord about a broken washing machine because what if that was the deciding factor in them selling up? I’m not saying it was the most rational train of thought I’ve ever had, but this is the kind of second-guessing that goes on when our housing situation is insecure.

The gap between people who have housing security, and people who are desperately trying to rent or buy a home, never mind the ever-growing disgrace of people raising families in hotel rooms, feels like it is getting wider. Reinforcing that crevasse between us will bring nothing good. Seeing each other as different based on whether we can rent or buy a home will breed nothing but alienation, distance and resentment. Great for novels. Not so great for real life.

In Glass Houses by Edel Coffey is out now, published by Sphere.