After experiencing homelessness when she fled domestic violence with her three children, Gillian said she initially felt she had “a stroke of luck” when she secured a tenancy supported by the Housing Assistance Payment (Hap) scheme.
Gillian, whose second name was not disclosed, and her children are one of 50 families whose experience of homelessness forms the basis of the latest Focus Ireland Insights series, published on Tuesday.
As one of the case histories in the report Gillian details how she secured a home having previously lived in emergency accommodation. However, she said her experience with her property management company was “challenging, with threats of eviction, refusal to return owed money, and unprofessional behaviour from the agent”.
“Despite having a roof over my head I still don’t feel safe,” she said. She described how she “had never been spoken to so badly” over maintenance issues, and said one interaction on the phone left her in tears.
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Another mother, Paula, entered what she hoped would be a short-term housing solution with her children but there were no cooking facilities and unreliable electricity. She was then moved to different emergency accommodation but said “the surroundings and people could be intimidating, with intoxicated individuals, shouting, and threats”.
Another mother, Annah Lepitua, said she struggled with homelessness while trying to care for her children and trying to keep her job at Dublin Airport. She also had to care for a child with a significant health condition. “It was difficult during that time,” she said.
Among the key findings of the report are:
• Families are continuing to become homeless due to “no fault” evictions as landlords sell up;
• Mothers in single-parent households, who are over-represented in homelessness, experience significant challenges in retaining their homes and, if they lose them, in their efforts to exit homelessness;
• Domestic violence continues to be a significant factor driving mothers into homelessness.
One of the study’s authors, Laurie O’Donnell, said 29 of the 50 families in the qualitative study had been in the private rental sector before becoming homeless. She said 13 of these had a negative experience with their landlord after the notice to quit was issued and the tenants said they had nowhere else to go. She said three tenants had taken action against landlords at the Residential Tenancies Board and one had been successful. One case had not been proceeded with, while another was ongoing at the time of writing the report.
Mike Allen, Focus Ireland’s director of advocacy and research, said the research represented only the experiences of the 50 homeless families involved. He said no landlords were interviewed for the research.
Mr Allen said the report “should not be assumed to be representative of all 1,134 families which were assessed as homeless in Dublin over the period” but said their experiences offered “critical insights into the systemic factors driving family homelessness, the barriers families face in accessing support, and the significant challenges of living in emergency accommodation”.
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