Last year Focus Ireland supported more than 15,000 people who were homeless or at risk of homelessness through their nationwide services, which include running housing hubs for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness.
“I work as a case manager for Focus Ireland, and I have been working with the organisation for three years now,” says Seán Lawless, who is based at a busy housing hub in Dublin 9. “I am one of the people that meet a family once they come in the door, and we would run an assessment to really pinpoint what ways we can support them.
“There is a lot to consider at the initial assessment because we want to get an overview of their whole situation, the needs of children, and we want the family to have a big input into this process, it is not just a matter of telling them what to do. This is a daily part of the job, we currently have 37 rooms in the building and at last count we had 100 people living here.
“I’m working with a family now where the mother and father were renting a house for 10 years, and from what I understand, the circumstances changed and the landlord was unwilling to transfer over to HAP,” he says.
“As a result of that the family had to leave. They have a boy and a girl, who are 12 and 13 years old and both children have autism.
Two rooms
Not having suitable rooms available means the family members are separated over two rooms. “The mother and son are in one room, and the father and daughter in the other, says Lawless. “The kids get picked up each morning to go to a school where they can support special needs. They get back around 3pm and is difficult because the boy is hypersensitive to noise, so he has to come and have his dinner later than everyone else. There are a lot of families and a lot of hustle and bustle in the canteen that he cannot deal with.
“The daughter is not as sensitive, but she finds social interactions very difficult. Their life is going to school and coming back to the room with their mother, as their father works part-time,” says Lawless. “They stay in the room until dinner time, eating separately from everyone because of the noise, and then they are back up to their room. For kids that age, it is just not suitable for them, especially with special needs – it doesn’t meet their needs at all.”
Lawless explains that while the father and mother are active in looking for a house, they are finding it very difficult, as they need to stay in proximity to their children’s school. “You can see the pressure taking a toll on all of them,” says Lawless, “the kids grew up and were settled in the house they rented for a decade. All of their furniture from there is in storage now, and I was just dealing with the storage company to try to get a bit of leeway and set up a payment plan with them, because the storage costs are adding up and the family have no means to pay it, they are already paying what they have to keep the kids in school.
“The parents’ mental health is suffering. It can be quite chaotic here because you have many different families with many different needs, and these two kids in the middle of it who are really vulnerable, who have trouble being social, and who cannot really interact and they are stuck in this situation through no fault of their own.
“We work alongside other services to do the best we can but as an organisation we need ongoing support. That family initially came in and thought they would be here for around a month until they found a suitable house. But they are having no luck, they are here six months now and the kids don’t really have a full understanding of what’s going on, they are still asking when they are going home to their own bedrooms.”