Living in one room in a B&B with your four children waiting for suitable accommodation is a "nightmare", Suzanne Strickland tells Fiona Murdoch

Looking after four young children who have gastric flu when you are ill as well is no joke. And when you are homeless and a lone parent with nobody to call on for help, it is a "nightmare".

Cleaning up after Anthony (6), Coady (4), Andrew (3) and 18-month-old Robin is exactly what 24-year-old Suzanne Strickland found herself doing morning, noon and night several weeks ago.

"Home" for the past 15 months has been a tiny room, crammed with two bunk-beds, a cot and a dresser in a B&B in Dublin's inner city. They have their own bathroom, but they have to share a kitchen-cum-living room with the 16 other residents.

While Strickland's children enjoy the company of the seven other kids, they hate living there. And although they are not obliged to vacate the premises during the day, they always stay out as long as possible.

In the morning, Anthony goes to school, Coady and Andrew to nursery and the baby to crèche while Mum attends a family programme run by Focus Ireland. There she meets others in similar circumstances and participates in activities such as reflexology and jewellery-making.

They spend the afternoon looking for bargains in second-hand clothes shops, visiting the playground or "just walking around", delaying the inevitable return to their cramped room.

"Whenever we're out and I say it's time to go home, the children always say: 'We don't want to go home yet'," says Strickland.

They are puzzled that they do not have a house of their own to live in: "They are always on at me - 'When are we getting a house?' - and I hate having to explain to them all the time that we have to wait.

"Fifteen months is an awfully long time to wait. Nobody should have to wait that long. I'm getting fed up because I keep ringing the council, but I'm not getting anywhere with them.

"My friend got a house a few weeks ago and my kids can't understand why we still have to wait. All they are interested in is getting a house and a garden with swings and a slide. I keep promising them they will get them some day."

How on earth does Strickland cope? "I don't have a clue. Being homeless is very, very distressing and it is terrible for the kids - they are suffering. Andrew now has behavioural problems - he is full of anger and bites other children.

"I don't regret having kids at all - I love them and they keep me going - but I just want a proper home for them."

Strickland left school when she was 14 and started work in a restaurant, but all she ever wanted in life was to be a good mother and to have a nice home.

Finding a flat to rent when she was 17 and in employment was never a problem, but when she became a full-time mother, she found it more difficult to find somewhere - as most landlords do not welcome either children or rent allowances.

She found herself homeless last year after vacating a flat where she had had to endure four days in January without electricity. With no means of providing heating or cooked food for her children, they had to make do with meals from the chip shop and wrapped themselves in blankets to keep warm.

Finding herself homeless only five weeks after giving birth, it was little wonder Strickland plunged into post-natal depression: "It was horrible; I was tired all the time and I would go to bed whenever the kids did."

Christmas was an especially difficult time: "I was on my own in the flat - just me and the kids. I was so depressed I couldn't even go out the door."

She has managed to keep going with the help of anti-depressants and the support of her sisters and her "brilliant" Focus Ireland key worker.

Her biggest concern now is where to register Coady for school. She is due to start in September, but Strickland does not know where to register her as she does not know where they will be housed and she does not like the idea of disrupting Coady's schooling when they move.

Despite her circumstances, she is optimistic: "I can see my future being far better than this. I have a great relationship with my kids - they come first and I just want the best for them. I just keep promising them their slide and swings."