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Pregnant mother of four soon to be homeless as landlord is selling home

Sarah and her husband Eamon have until June to try to find a new home for their family.

Speaking in the Dáil last week, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett raised the cases of families and individuals affected by homelessness in the south Dublin area. Each day this week, TheJournal.ie speaks to some of the people whose lives are in turmoil as a result of Ireland’s homelessness crisis.

SARAH AND EAMON* and their family have to be out of their home by the end of June.

The young married couple have been living with their children in a private rented house in south Dublin for the past four years.

They previously had a home in the Dún Laoghaire area, but had to move out about five years ago when they both lost their jobs.

The family moved back into Eamon’s mother’s house to save money, before they found the house they are now living in.

Sarah went back to college and graduated as a nurse. She currently works full-time in a nursing home. Eamon also went back to college and has two years left before he finishes his degree.

The family previously received the rent supplement payment to help them afford their rent for a number of years. Last year, their landlord said they should move onto the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

“We went on rent allowance because I was in college getting my degree, so we figured it would be a good way to help us get our lives back on track,” Sarah tells TheJournal.ie.

“So then last year the landlord asked us to go on the HAP, he said it would be better security for him and us,” she says.

He gave us our notice there about 2 weeks ago. He wants to get out of the HAP and settle. We have to be out by June.

“We thought we were settled”

The couple have four children (ages nine, five, three and two) and Sarah is pregnant and due to give birth in five weeks.

Their five-year-old son has autism, and Sarah says he is finding the news that they will be evicted very hard.

“We thought we were settled here [in this house],” says Sarah.

I’m qualified and I’m working now so we thought we were okay.

The news that the landlord was selling came as a shock for them both.

“They said that they couldn’t afford to maintain the rent at the levels they were at. And they were selling up all their properties and getting out,” she says.

The landlord had raised the rent previously in the last 24 months. Under new rent cap legislation introduced in Dublin at the end of last year, they would have been unable to raise it again before two years had passed.

The rent could have only gone up by a maximum of 4% when they did raise it, which the landlord found unsustainable.

HAP not accepted

Since they learnt that they would soon be evicted, Eamon and Sarah have been frantically searching for a new place to live, and a landlord that will accept HAP tenants.

The Housing Assistance Payment was introduced in 2014 as a form of social housing support for people who have a long-term housing need.

Under HAP, rent is paid to a landlord by a local authority (in Sarah and Eamon’s case, South Dublin County Council) on behalf of the tenants.

The tenants then have to pay a weekly contribution to the local authority based on how much they can afford. Households must source the accommodation themselves and there is also a limit to how expensive the rent can be.

The payment is designed to eventually completely replace rent supplement (which Eamon and Sarah were on before they switched last year).

The key differences between the two are that tenants are allowed to work while they’re in receipt of HAP; and the payment is given to the landlord on time. This is in order the make the arrangement more favourable for landlords.

HAP is a form of social housing support, so tenants who secure accommodation through HAP are removed from their local authority’s social housing waiting list, as their housing needs are deemed to be met. They have the option to go on a HAP transfer list instead.

The couple are on the HAP transfer list now, but Sarah says the 10 years they spent on the council housing waiting list in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council now no longer counts for them.

It is also illegal for landlords to say that you won’t accept HAP when advertising a property for rent. But Sarah says that the couple have been refused on multiple occasions.

“As soon as you mention you’re on the HAP you don’t get anything,” says Sarah.

“They respond – you get emails asking can you confirm if you’re on the HAP – then they don’t get back to you.

It’s illegal to do that but they still do. They just don’t get back to you.

The couple generally don’t get a response to their initial request for a viewing, and Sarah says that the accommodation is generally far above the limits allowed under HAP. But they apply anyway as they feel there is no other option.

HAP is a key part of reducing the number of homeless people as laid out in the Government’s Housing Action Plan launched last year.

PBP TD Richard Boyd Barrett raised Sarah and Eamon’s case (among others) in the Dáil last week. He pointed to the fact that the payment isn’t fully secure, as the private landlord can decide to sell the house and evict the tenants (which isn’t the case with typical, council-owned properties).

Addressing Enda Kenny in the Dáil last week, Boyd Barrett said that HAP was failing as a form of social housing support.

“[These families are] now being evicted from the supposedly secure social housing support that you said it would provide for them,” he said to Enda Kenny.

RBB Oireachtas TV Oireachtas TV

The future

Sarah says that her grandmother has recently moved from her council-owned house where she used to live to a nursing home in the Dun Laoghaire area.

She has asked Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council could the family take over the tenancy, but was told they can’t as she hasn’t been on the rent book for the house (as she moved out when she was 19).

Sarah is due to have her baby in five weeks. She will finish up working soon and was admitted to hospital with high blood pressure due to the stress last week.

The family are desperately trying to find somewhere else to live in time, but if they don’t they have been told that they will have to register as homeless.

“We’re going to have to register as homeless with five children in June,” says Sarah.

We don’t know what’s going to happen. We could end up in homeless accommodation.

Of their children, Sarah says that her nine-year-old daughter and five-year-old son with autism are taking the news badly.

“For my son, he just can’t get his head around it. But it’s different for him because he has autism, he wouldn’t process that information the way we would,” she says.

“He worries about things like not being able to bring his toys with him or leaving his stuff here.

“Ever since we told him, he’ll just start crying sometimes. And when we ask him what’s wrong he says, ‘I’m worried’, or ‘I’m sad’, or ‘I don’t want to go’.”

*Only Sarah and Eamon’s first names have been used in order to protect their identities

Read: ‘You had to walk through a pub to get to your room, the smell of drink and drugs was disgusting’

Read: ‘I felt so alone and afraid’: Out of the care system and straight into homelessness

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93 Comments
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    Mute John O'Reilly
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    Apr 6th 2023, 2:37 PM

    If only FFG politicians were as outraged by real photos of Gardai assisting masked thugs throwing families out on the street as they are fake outraged by a SF politician posting an artwork depicting the same

    466
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Apr 6th 2023, 4:08 PM

    @John O’Reilly: gardai don’t ‘assist’ in evictions. Their role is to ensure that there is no breach of the peace.
    Sinn fein hates the gardai, something to do with the way they used to stop them robbing banks. They murdered quite a few gardai in their time.

    388
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    Mute Michael Reilly
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    Apr 6th 2023, 4:31 PM

    @John O’Reilly: You might enlighten us where?

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    Mute Mc Comascaigh Paul
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    Apr 7th 2023, 8:25 AM

    @John O’Reilly: where can I find these images of masked thugs evicting families???

    3
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    Mute Gerry Campbell
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    Apr 7th 2023, 9:44 AM

    @John O’Reilly: They are there because they are legally obliged to be there,surely you are not naieve enough to think it’s just random “let’s evict someone today for the crack” so presuming you know that they must be there ,what’s your point/agenda ?

    3
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    Mute camio55
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:08 PM

    I think SF are the last party in this state that should use history illustrations to embarrass government.

    Their most recent history in support of murder and violence is one they ask all to forget. Would they like those innocent dead to be on posters throughout Ireland.

    374
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    Mute camio55
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    Apr 6th 2023, 7:20 PM

    @Ronan Meagle: No not all, it is too easy to forget when mouthing populous rhetoric the very recent history of SF . They live in a world of denial and hope the population at large will not dwell on their association and support for the phscophatic behavior of the IRA in the not too distant past. The innocent murdered could be with is today except for their actions. That is how recent their actions are in a historical context.

    121
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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Apr 6th 2023, 9:12 PM

    @camio55: The anniversary of the GFA is upon us. Yet the condemnation of one side in the conflict suits the narrative of FFG. Perhaps if successive Irish and British governments had not buried their heads in the sand concerning the apartheid state that existed in the six counties it could have been averted. The shaking of heads concerning Republican violence, yet the British state sponsored violence is glossed over. Hypocrisy at it’s best.

    26
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    Mute Plumbers Dublin
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    Apr 6th 2023, 4:10 PM

    Sinn Fein meekly apologising with their usual sincerity! In regards to Sinn Fein and the eviction ban being lifted, I wish they would stop going on about it. I have the deepest sympathy for those it will affect but I don’t think Sinn Fein understand that we live in a free market economy. If a person works, pays their taxes and decide to spend their money on something that is not illegal it is their own right. Person buys a second house for investment or retirement. This is now their property and as such they should be allowed to do what they like with it when they want. The person may want the house to live in themselves, they may need the money desperately. If the government told you all their was a car shortage and that you could not sell your car in the north of Ireland where you could get twice the money or you had to car share with a neighbour everyone would be outraged. Why, because you bought and paid for it with your hard earned money and should be able to do what you want with it. It is not the landlords fault but with Sinn Fein’s attitude the average landlord just wants to get out because if Sinn Fein get in to power it will be no evictions, lowering of rent prices/rent freezes.

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Apr 7th 2023, 12:05 AM

    @Plumbers Dublin: Well FFG in power since the foundation of this state have been apologising for the last few years for their inept governance of this state .They are responsible for since the foundation of this state concerning the apartheid state that existed in the six counties. Yet you criticise the people who fought against this system. The hypocrisy is typical of FFG.

    19
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    Mute honey badger
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    Apr 6th 2023, 2:43 PM

    An non-apology. Politicians are great at them.

    179
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Apr 6th 2023, 4:10 PM

    @honey badger: why pick on Doherty?
    It’s just a house, albeit a huge one.

    22
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    Mute Chris Gaffney
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    Apr 7th 2023, 12:16 AM

    @John Mulligan: Still didn’t hear any meaningful account of the Cabra house either???

    17
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    Mute Richard Starling
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:14 PM

    I’ll bet he does (not)! Doesn’t Sinn Fein want to disband the garda entirely if they get in power (or did I hear it wrongly)?

    120
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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:30 PM

    @Tommy Berry: They used to refer to them as ‘Free State RUC’. I think it’s safe to say that they don’t like them much. They’re not big fans of our republic either.

    172
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    Mute Richard Starling
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    Apr 6th 2023, 5:36 PM

    @Tommy Berry: Thank you for correcting my misheard information.

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    Mute Richard Starling
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    Apr 6th 2023, 5:39 PM

    @Paul Whitehead: that was uncalled for. All I noted was something that came up and may have misheard. You could have corrected me politely instead of the insulting tone of your statement

    16
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    Mute Chris Gaffney
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    Apr 6th 2023, 9:37 PM

    @Richard Starling: Gardai, landlords, developers, revenue, multi national companies and much more…..God Help Us!!

    5
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    Mute Paul
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    Apr 6th 2023, 6:03 PM

    Given the IRA killing of Gardai, and the visits by SF members to their killers in prison, I’m not at all surprised at the Tweet.
    I wonder if the Army Council had to approve his “apology”.

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    Mute KeithG
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    Apr 6th 2023, 10:56 PM

    @Paul: Ffs.. Any thing new or interesting to add..

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:00 PM

    In fairness, Simon’s outrage completely took the headlines away from the latest opinion polls! A job well done, Simon. Congratulations

    85
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    Mute Chris Gaffney
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:36 PM

    He is a total bag of wind!!

    114
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    Mute Michael Keegan
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    Apr 6th 2023, 2:35 PM

    Tone deaf

    91
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    Mute alan
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    Apr 6th 2023, 2:37 PM

    @Michael Keegan: or cat out of the bag.

    77
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    Mute Don Hogan
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    Apr 6th 2023, 9:19 PM

    This guy is unfit for any office and a liar. Ireland deserves better than him.

    42
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    Mute Dev
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    Apr 6th 2023, 4:20 PM

    he definitely nailed the soyboy aesthetic

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    Mute Cobson
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    Apr 6th 2023, 3:36 PM

    new soyjak just dropped

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    Mute Siobhan O'Sullivan Morrin
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    Apr 9th 2023, 4:48 PM

    I don’t know why he should ‘regret’ the posting of this piece of protest artwork.
    I didn’t take it to be a reflection on individual gardai or on the force in general. Rather I saw it as a metaphor of the State forcing people into homelessness. It’s a perfectly valid response to the lifting of the eviction ban and the lack of suitable and affordable alternative accommodation in the private rented sector at the moment.
    And just for the record – I’m not a supporter of Sinn Féin as such (though I have voted for their candidates) but if someone says something that makes sense … … …

    2
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    Mute Proinnsias O'Dubhlaoich
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 8:58 AM

    It’s all hot air about the lack of affordable housing and evictions. Our political class and that includes SF have decided every person rich and poor from around the world can land here legally or illegally and stay, even those who have deliberately destroyed their documents after boarding an aircraft or paid into some scheme to get residency. So I don’t want to hear another bloody word from any politician of their concern about the lack of houses and the homeless Irish unless it’s in the same sentence requesting the arrest and deportation of illegal migrants (who have broken EU/UN rules ). We all know why there is a lack of houses for Irish people or maybe the multi jabbed sheep can’t still don’t get it. Sick of this fake concern from these wretches in the Dail like they don’t know why it’s happening, they’ve caused it.

    1
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    Mute Joe Bergin.
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    Apr 7th 2023, 10:07 AM

    Yeah… I think not.

    1
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