Family of eight without a home

A COUPLE and their six children have been left homeless because the HSE will not pay rent allowance on a house deemed unsuitable.

Danielle and Ger Harte said they were encouraged to move into a house in Ardnacrusha by a member of Clare County Council days before they were due to sign a rental agreement for another house in Kilalloe under the council’s Rental Accommodation Scheme.

However, they said they were persuaded to opt for a house in Ardnacrusha as five of their children attended nearby Parteen primary school and were getting on well and the school needed to keep up pupil numbers.

Their eldest son, Gerard, 11, has attended four different schools in eight years and the couple want stability for him and their five young children, Kevin, 10, Jonathan, 9, Nicole, 8, Ciara, 7, and Liam, 4.

But now due to a decision of the council and the HSE about the house they have been living in at Ardnacrusha, they have an accommodation crisis.

Danielle said: “We just want to bring our kids up and give them a good future. We only moved because we thought we were making things easier for our children.”

The family have lived in five different homes over the past seven years. They had to move out of rented homes on a number of occasions after the landlords sold the properties.

Danielle and Ger have packed their belongings into boxes and do not know when their children will again sleep in a family home.