The Experience of Housing Discrimination and Housing Deprivation Across Social Groups in Ireland

Abstract

This study focuses on housing inequalities across diverse social groups with respect to two housing indicators: subjective housing discrimination; and objective housing deprivation. By scrutinizing the correspondence in inequalities between the two indicators, we enhance the measurement of housing inequality and at the same time we shed light on the relationship between subjective and objective dimensions of housing— a relationship that has received little empirical examination so far. Existing research suggests that housing discrimination can contribute to housing deprivation through two channels: inadequate information and limited economic resources. Our focus is the post-2008 housing market crash era in Ireland. We use two separate large-scale individual-level surveys, the QNHS (2004, 2010, 2014) for analysing housing discrimination and SILC (2014, 2015) for analysing housing deprivation. Our findings reveal a robust convergence between perceptions of housing discrimination and objective housing deprivation across various social groups. Traditionally vulnerable groups—such as young individuals, those with disabilities, non-natives (excluding EU citizenship holders), single parents, and individuals without children—experience both discrimination and deprivation. Notably, certain groups exhibit persistent disparities in discrimination and disadvantage, even after considering factors like human capital, regional and tenure differences.