With news that two families a day are becoming homeless in Dublin alone, a young mother has spoken about the realities of her life with her daughter in a hotel room, writes Denise O’Donoghue.
21-year-old Joy, despite never missing a payment, was forced to leave her rented property in Swords in recent weeks as the house was being repossessed.
She received a sheriff’s letter saying she had to leave within 10 days, and she temporarily moved into her mother’s home with her three-year-old daughter. Her sister and her two children already live there, as does her brother.
Every landlord that Joy has contacted refused to rent to her, saying they were only looking for professionals.
Joy declared herself homeless three weeks ago and was put into a small hotel room in Dublin city centre. There is no fridge in the room, and she has to buy perishable food every day.
“I never thought I’d see the day I’d see myself in a hotel with my daughter of three years of age with a Christmas tree the size of my arm. It’s not right,” she told Today with Sean O’Rourke.
After packing their belongings, her daughter thought they were going on a holiday.
“The day I declared myself homeless we had a pink suitcase, and she actually thought we were going to the airport,” Joy said. “But we weren’t, we were going to declare ourselves homeless.”
“I’m only 21, I’m only young, I come from a well-respected family and I really never thought I’d see the day when I’m in a hotel room”
All I want is to have a house and to be able to work as a home care assistant. That’s all I want: to get my car, get my house, and go out and work, work, work. That’s all I want to do but I cant. I’ve lost everything. I’ve lost my whole life.”
Joy slammed landlords for the high price of rent around the country.
“I’ve seen people with studio apartments for €1300 – that’s not right.”
She has called on the government to step in and improve conditions for struggling families.
“This Government has to change, it really does. They have to do something about it.”
This comes as national charity the Phoenix Project predicts that hundreds of families will become homeless before Christmas, and that the majority will be due to mortgage arrears.
John McGrath, chairman of the Phoenix Project, said that there were 2,000 cases relating to mortgage arrears being heard in the courts in December.
Mr McGrath said that of these 2,000 court cases, at least 10% would result in rulings that would see family homes being repossessed.
“These cases have already been adjourned on numerous occasions and the courts will not put them off any more,” Mr McGrath said.
“There are another 2,300 such cases listed for the courts in January and there will be more over the coming months. The time has run out for the 40,000 mortgages that are two year or more in arrears.”
The Phoenix Project has called on the Government to urgently re-assess the parameters of the mortgage-to-rent scheme.
Under this scheme, those in mortgage arrears can stay in their homes. However, the scheme is only eligible to those in arrears who earn less than the average industrial wage.
Mr McGrath said that the scheme should be extended to borrowers in arrears who earn €50,000 or less.
“We need an immediate expansion of the mortgage to rent scheme. The existing parameters need to be urgently extended. It doesn’t matter if it is a private or public scheme.
“Over the next month, it looks likely that hundreds of families will have their homes taken from them. There is 97% occupancy hotels and there is no supply in the rental market. These families will have nowhere to go, so the Government had to act fast,” he warned.
