A Dungarvan woman has been forced to couch-surf with her young son as a result of the eviction ban being lifted recently.
Her story was outlined by Sinn Fein Councillor Conor McGuinness at yesterday's Plenary meeting of Waterford Council.
"I was sent a letter earlier this week by a young woman from Dungarvan, a mother with a three-year-old boy, who is entering her sixth week of homelessness", Cllr. McGuinness told the meeting.
"This individual is one of many victims of the housing crisis. The no-fault eviction ban offered her a period of respite but when this protection was taken away she like many others became homeless with few, if any, options available to her. Couch surfing when and where possible and living out of a suitcase. Neither this woman nor her son show up in homeless statistics. They are not counted amongst the 12,000 people across the State on the official homeless lists."
He says that something has got to give to stop situations like these from arising.
"She has a part-time job in Dungarvan, and this is where she and her son’s support network are located. Emergency accommodation in Waterford is simply not an option, it would mean giving up her job and removing her child from the stability and support that are keeping this family going. I have asked, pleaded even, for emergency accommodation to be made available in West Waterford for precisely this kind of situation. I am deeply frustrated that this hasn’t occurred. Local emergency accommodation won’t solve the crisis in housing - it won’t make up for the failure that is the HAP scheme, or fix private rental - but it will offer some help to people experiencing great hardship."
Cllr. McGuinness outlined some of the comments which were shared with him.
"I’ll finish with some words from this woman’s letter: “There are no properties in the area for rent within my HAP budget. I have been looking for the past 10 months. I am getting beyond desperate to secure us a safe place to live. The way my son and I are living now is not living, it is just surviving, and it is getting tougher as the days go on.” Can we please, please, make good on our obligations to people across Waterford, and do something to help this person and the dozens more in the same situation?".
