Any constitutional right to housing means people would have to stop objecting to housing developments.
That's according to Tom Phillips, adjunct associate professor of architecture and planning at UCD.
He was speaking after a recent opinion poll found 55% of respondents were in favour of inserting the right to housing into the Constitution.
Mr Phillips told The Hard Shoulder he believes such a right already exists.
"I think it's already in the Constitution - I'm not a constitutional lawyer, I'm not a lawyer.
"But in reading through it there's a lot of references to the common good - I think there's nine references.
"And if you look at the preamble to the Planning and Development Act, which all development in Ireland is undertaken, the very first sentence of it says it's to provide for housing.
"And it's all done in the interests of the common good.
"So I'd argue that the Constitution already has, built into it, the right to provide for housing.
"There's the rights of property, there's the rights of the State to legislate on behalf of different forms of the powers of government - executive powers, judicial powers.
"All those are in the Constitution already."
'People want the right to do things'
And he said all this tinkering means houses are not being built.
"I think if we just keep adding to it, it's probably deferring what we should be doing: which is... providing housing.
"And if you had to ask the same people, in that poll, 'Are you willing to put something into the Constitution about the right for housing - but are you equally willing to stop objecting to housing', they'd probably say 'No, no.'
"People want the right to do things, but not the right to be controlled.
"We have a situation that people object too easily to housing: so you can't have the right to housing and then every time someone tries to build it it's stopped".
Rhona McCord is a researcher and community development officer at Unite.
She said this is something we should aspire to.
"It would be very much a good aspiration and statement for us to see in our Constitution, vindicating a right to housing for people.
"That's not to say that I think it's as simple as that or a simple issue - I'm quite aware that it's a complex one.
"However if we have that as a our base start and see shelter and housing as a human right, then I think we should refocus the debate and policy around that aspiration."
She said the current constitutional vindication of the rights of private property should "balance that with a right to all persons to have access to adequate housing.
"It's not actually something that's new for Ireland - we signed up to the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which in and of itself...states who would recognise the right to everyone to adequate standard of living.
"So it's not something that's new, in that sense, for us to aspire to - but I think we should use it as a base human right in this country now".
