Cork mother and three children evicted into homelessness from rented home she occupied for nine years

A young mother and her three children have been evicted into homelessness from the home she rented for nine years.

It will now cost the state an estimated €3,500 to house them in emergency B&B accommodation in south Cork for the next two to three weeks alone.

Where they will stay beyond that is uncertain.

The family's plight led to renewed calls for legislation to prevent evictions into homelessness.

Sinn Féin Cllr in Cork city, Thomas Gould, who has been working on the woman's case, also called for housing body, Threshold, to be given increased powers amid fears that this family is not an isolated case.

He said this family's plight proves that the government's focus on protecting the rights of landlords is exposing some families to homelessness.

"This woman was renting this house for the last nine years and there was never a problem. It's where her children were raised," he said.

But she had to tell her children last Thursday that they now have nowhere to live.

He said the landlord served the woman with a notice to quit last August, giving her the required notice. He said the landlord followed procedure and did everything by the book.

The woman linked with Threshold who liaised with the landlord, resulting in an offer to increase her monthly rental payment to just over €1,100.

But the landlord rejected the offer and advised the woman to leave the property, on the southside of Cork city, by last Thursday or face possible legal action which could result in her facing legal costs.

The woman and her family had no option but to spend the weekend in the city's Family Hub on Western Rd.

But their space in the Hub was pledged to someone else from yesterday and the family has now had to relocate to a B&B nearly 20km away.

Mr Gould said the woman, who works in the city, is now at risk of not being able to continue working.

"And all this is happening at a time when we have over 103 derelict properties in the city, and when the former St Mary's Hospital site is still lying idle," he said.

He is still working with the family in a bid to resolve their situation.