Boy celebrates first birthday in tent with evicted mother

LITTLE Stephen Tate, who is unwell, celebrates his first birthday today - in a tent.

His evicted mother has been protesting in the street outside Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council office for three weeks.

Antoinette Tate was made homeless when a private landlord evicted her and her family for being late with the rent.

She says she provided medical evidence to the council stating the urgent need for herself and her three children to be housed. Little Stephen has been diagnosed with chronic bronchialitis, a serious asthmatic condition.

Jacob, six, and Jody, four, attend school in nearby Sallynoggin.

In the evenings the children leave the tent to spend the night with their grandmother.

Ms Tate said: “The council won’t even talk to me. They are also trying to say that I’m not homeless. Yet they sent me to the homeless person’s unit. That means that I should be given priority.”

Two “completely unsuitable” offers of emergency accommodation were made by the council, said Richard Boyd Barrett of the Socialist Workers’ Party, who is backing her demands.

“The desperate situation Antoinette finds herself in is a direct result of the council’s failed housing policy.

“Over 3,000 people are on the housing list and it gets longer every year, because the council is building almost no council houses.”

Rejecting Ms Tate’s claims, a spokesperson for the Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Co Council said: “We are very sympathetic to her.”

The spokesperson said Ms Tate had been advised she did not have to quit the private accommodation until court proceedings started - normally six to eight weeks - but chose to quit her accommodation. She had been offered emergency accommodation and she qualified for rent supplement and had been put on the housing list.