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MANY PEOPLE ASSUME they know my story.
If you are to believe the article about me in the Sunday Independent at the weekend, I am the homeless campaigner who has turned down two offers of housing.
If you are to believe the threads that have appeared on online forums and social media, I am a bad mother.
I have become, in many people’s eye, the embodiment of an abused system that is exploiting the contributions of hard-pressed taxpayers throughout this country.
My Twitter bio reads that I am a ‘Dublin mother of one forced to raise my daughter in a cramped hotel room because of FG/Lab/FF austerity’. I believe that statement to be true.
Being homeless
I am fortunate to have been in a position to have worked my entire life. I work as a receptionist each morning from 8am and finish work at 2pm to collect my daughter from school.
Yet in the three years before becoming homeless in June 2015, I lived in three different privately rented accommodations. Each month I paid my rent on time until the very moment that the landlord increased that rent beyond my capacity to pay.
I hate being homeless. Every night I lie beside my child as she falls asleep. I cherish the sound of her every breath. But I am aware that with each day she gets that little bit older, she is becoming more aware of how unnatural her surroundings are.
I have always sought to provide for my family. The fact that I work hard and still cannot provide the security of a home for my daughter makes me enormously angry.
My Homeless Family
In October of last year, I agreed to take part in a documentary for RTÉ called My Homeless Family that aired over Christmas.
In permitting those cameras to enter that small single room I shared with my daughter, I wanted to highlight to the rest of the country that homelessness wasn’t a condition that afflicted only the most vulnerable people in our society. I did not feel that I fit into any of the neat stereotypes that might be used as a reason why a person might become homeless. In addition to working Monday to Friday, I have never misused alcohol, nor have I ever been addicted to any other substances.
I felt strong at that time and was confident that I could use my story to force the government into action.
After the programme aired, I was invigorated by the level of support I received and found a great sense of purpose in becoming a public campaigner on the issue of homelessness. I organised marches, I spoke at rallies, and I accepted invitations to speak at different political events. I tweeted a lot, and many of those that tweeted back became my friends in real life.
Setting the record straight
In the months since that programme aired the strength which once defined me has dwindled significantly. The Sunday Independent ran a story this weekend stating with absolute confidence that “homeless campaigner Erica refused two housing offers”. They cited the source of their story as coming from an internal Dublin City Council report.
Firstly, the contents of this report are not true. I received no offer of social housing. The report that was passed on to the media refers to two telephone conversations I had with a member of Dublin City Council’s Pathfinders Team shortly after the RTÉ documentary aired in January.
I remember vividly the initial joy that I felt at the first phone call I received from DCC. They began by stating they had managed to source an apartment for me and my daughter. I almost burst into tears with happiness.
It was a couple of minutes into the phone call before I realised that this apartment was to be allocated through the HAP scheme.
The Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is a system whereby local authorities agree to pay rent directly to private landlords to house their tenants. Tenants subsequently pay a weekly HAP rent contribution to the council based on ability to pay. Since January 2016 it is illegal for landlords to discriminate against people in receipt of payments such as rent supplement or HAP when advertising a property for let.
The important thing to note here: there was no official offer of accommodation made to me.
My friend Danielle Reid, a lone parent mother of one also living in emergency accommodation, has received 12 such phone calls from DCC’s Pathfinder Service and has yet to find a landlord that will agree to rent her a property. Danielle has permitted me to use her story as a demonstration of the failure of this system.
This is the extent of my conversations with Dublin City Council and at no time was I offered any actual form of social housing.
Lack of security
My main objection to HAP is the lack of security of tenure. My only ask during that phone call, and indeed the next one, was that I be given a lease that would guarantee the rent remained static or at least within DCC’s rent limit over the next five years. This request was declined on each occasion, and I never got the opportunity to meet with any landlord.
In the documentary that aired over Christmas, I made my position on HAP very clear. I have never sought to mislead or use my platform to gain favour over anyone else in the homeless system.
My daughter has already experienced the sadness of moving three times before our entry into the homeless system. I will not allow that to happen again.
Underhanded tactics
I understand that many people are struggling to meet their rent who will not be offered support from any State or local authority. But I should not be held accountable for a system that is clearly punishing working people in this country.
I also understand that this explanation will do little to temper the vitriol that has been levelled at me over the past number of days. I will just have to come to terms with that.
What I will not accept, however, is my private interactions with State and local authorities being leaked to the media to discredit me or tarnish my reputation. I have already sought details from Dublin City Council on this internal report that they have seemingly prepared in my case. I have requested information on whose authority this report was prepared, who had access to it and how it came into the hands of the media.
I began my campaign almost 10 months ago in the mistaken belief that I could force the State into truly confronting the growing homeless crisis that exists in our country. I felt that as a private citizen of a republic, this was my right. I never imagined the State would use such underhanded tactics to try and shame a private citizen.
Many will claim that I have reaped what I have sown. But my intention was to highlight a societal wrong. Those who seek to shame me in the media are just trying to shut me up.
In the end, I simply have to remember the reason why I began this campaign in the first place; my only purpose in life is to build a better life for my daughter Emily.
The only judgement that matters to me is hers.
Erica Fleming is a campaigner for the homeless.
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Customers can already self exclude and need to be 18 to enter a betting shop. A total BAN on the ” virtual product” including all racing ( horses, cars, dogs, bikes, football) and numbers generated games like the bingo and roulette needs to introduced. Most of the major shops in this country are making their huge profit in theses areas of gambling. As a former employee of 15 years ive seen with my own eyes the problems people have with it.
@andrew sutton: much of what you say is true.I do believe that the consultation of people who were in the industry be seriously considered.I somehow doubt that they will consider such consultation feasible.Legislation appears for discussion regularly in the dail that seems to be the product of virtual research,take the HSE as an example…..Let’s ask a lot of administrative people the best way to utilise nurses and junior doctors. We all know how that works out.
You are 100% right Andrew, plus with the self exclude all the responsability is put on the customer and the bookies take none. They pray on the lower class areas, look at the amount of bookies in and around the Henary street area compard to Graffton street. Paddy Power have 8 shop’s within an half mile of the spike .
Why is the national lottery excluded? They made it even more of a mugs game by upping prices and increasing the number of balls this year. Scratch cards need to be included
Absolutely dave , also ” amusement ” arcades , the amount of under 25s losing their proverbials in these places is nauseating .
As a person who likes a bet every couple of weeks think it would be a good idea to get rid of online gambling with credit/visa cards.Let people top up in the betting shops with their customer cards and then use that to log on and bet online if they wish.All they can then bet is whats on their account.We all think alot more about what we spend when we see the money in our hands before its passed over the counter.Far to easy to bet online as it almost doesn’t feel like real money if that makes sense.
Maybe even a national betting card with a limit. You put in you’re code and once you have gone over you’re monthly amount you cant gamble any more.
@Jim: Sounds like a thoroughly Irish solution, we should do the same with alcohol, cigarettes, fast food, luxury goods. Don’t mind that thousands of people do it every day without a problem. Lets screw everyone because of the few that take it too far.
Spot on John
To be fair John, If you’re betting every day then it’s safe to say it is a problem.And it’s more than a few that take it too far.Its too easy to conceal a gambling addiction whereas with drink, cigarettes and drugs the signs are generally obvious.
All it takes is one look at the clientele who attend the bookies on a regular basis to know it’s a losers game. The wealth of Paddy Powers alone should get the message through.
you are a moron if you are judging people by their looks and how regular they attend a bookmakers. having worked in many some years ago and known the clientele personally i can verify there is a wide array of people who frequent these eatablishments.
@Scundered: interesting comment.You should read the article above,it is close to the subject you seem to be commenting on.
That is the point of the comments section….Read article and then express a view.
As an aside ,I doubt very much if you are a stranger to a bookies.There is more than a little latent bitterness in your ‘comment’.
As the saying goes ‘The house always wins.’ If they didn’t, as you rightly point out they wouldn’t be in business long.
The government appears to be dragging out this much needed legislation. Self exclusion has been around for quite a while,5 years or so.Some of the practices employed by the online companies are criminal,almost.They will take a lot of study and I personally do not feel this government is committed to the completion of this legislation in any reasonable time frame. It is a cash cow and tax revenue will always trump social needs regardless of the damage to members of society.
Over 10 years ago, a Fine Gael senator attempted to introduce a Private Members Bill that would have closed off the availability of the Tote at racecourses and dog tracks to under 18′s.
The Bill was supported by Gamblers Anonymous but the Fianna Fáil led Government opposed it.
The same Senator became Leader of the House in the previous administration but chose not to prevail on the Cabinet to change the law.
Under age gambling is illegal in bookies shops and also National Lottery products yet every day youngsters attending horse and dog meetings are entitled to bet courtesy of the State-sanctioned Tote cartel. Go figure.
@Vincent Jennings: In fairness if under 18s are placing bets at race tracks etc its not upto the government to stop them. Parents have to take some responsibility here.
Paddy power will let u bet and bet but as soon as you try to withdraw money it then closes you’re account and then looks for I’d. It should be id first
In 1967 when I was a kid, I placed a bet for my Granny in the local bookies on the Grand National.
It didn’t turn me into a gambler, in fact I don’t think I have ever been into a bookies since.
The Gambling Control Bill in it’s present state is not ready to legislate on .
have your say