Homelessness Crisis: Mother of four says homelessness leads to social problems and addiction

Natasha Carey, a mother of four, says homelessness causes a “ripple effect” which often leads to greater health and social problems and addiction.

Being homeless means her family has been separated, something she is fighting to solve, but, without a home, this is impossible.

The 34-year-old Dubliner said: “I am battling at the moment to get my house before Christmas.

“I am number one on the housing list and I am number one on the homeless list, but I am number one for the last year and a half. I am getting nowhere... You still have to fight.”

She has been sleeping rough in a number of locations across the city. She said as a woman it is “very scary” to be on the streets.

“I was evicted out of Phoenix Park last week. I was living in a tent.

“Even the rangers said to me they were so sorry, they felt sorry for me. They said, while I am living in a tent, I keep it all well maintained and the area around it, but they had to evict me. It’s very scary.”

She arrived into the Peter McVerry centre for a hot breakfast after staying in a sleeping bag in a makeshift hut close to the city centre the previous night.

She only began taking drugs when she was forced into emergency accommodation.

The Dubliner said she has been off drugs for a number of years, but is now struggling to make the next step and get a home.

“How I became homeless was due to a house fire, I was in rented accommodation. So, I had to go into the homeless accommodation. I went in and I ended up getting a serious habit.”

After 10 years without a home, Bernadette Keogh, was allocated a house in Dublin’s Mulhuddart last month.

She said that being homeless leads to addiction, one which can be very difficult to break without a permanent roof over your head.

“I was in hotels, mostly, and the drugs problem is very bad, I found it very hard,” said the mother of two.

After chatting over breakfast at the centre on Berkeley St she took some time out to use the computers in the centre, another one of the facilities the service offers.

Logging onto Facebook, she proudly showed pictures of her 16-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. Like every mother, she is keen to highlight her children’s achievements, her son is studying hard while her daughter loves ice-skating and football.

“They are doing great,” she said with a smile.

She was already using drugs when she became pregnant with her first child and was put on methadone, but struggled to come off that treatment.

“I have since done rehab and I now feel great off the methadone. I don’t touch needles anymore.

“Peter McVerry put me on the right track.

“I was on the streets, no hostel would take me in because I was using needles, that was probably around 11 years ago now.”

She said she would get off the drugs and would go back to living at home, but “bumping into people that do drugs and alcohol would act as a trigger”.

“The alcohol starts it off and then it goes from there.”

However, she now hopes that addiction and homelessness will be staying firmly in her past. She was attending the centre to get help.

“It’s new to me. But I just want to get a little programme, that will keep me straight,” she said.