Couple waiting on housing list ended up sleeping in car

A Cork couple has revealed how they spent last summer sleeping in their car.

Every night last summer, they dropped their daughter, 7, at her grandparents’ house and drove off to find somewhere to bed down for the night.

Rita and Alex (not their real names) parked all over Cork City; on the northside, the southside, and often by the river.

If they found somewhere they felt comfortable, they would stay for a few nights but never long enough to be noticed by locals. “We wanted it to be quiet, but then it couldn’t be too quiet either,” said Rita.

Two years ago, Alex was doing odd jobs in construction. The family was on the housing list and renting in the private sector. However, Alex’s work dropped away suddenly and they had to look for social welfare and rent allowance, which they had to top up each week.

Savings were non-existent and when they had to refill their home heating oil tank, at a cost of €500, they started missing rent repayments. Eventually, the landlord asked them to leave their Grenagh home.

Within months, their nights were spent sleeping on the seats of their 10-year-old car with quilts wrapped around them.

“We just did it. We had no choice. We didn’t have a deposit. We had nothing. We went to City Hall, TDs, everyone. Nobody could help us. We were sleeping in the car until we got this place three weeks ago,” said Rita.

The couple found accommodation with the help of Threshold but are critical of a housing system that can leave people homeless overnight.

“We’re nearly five years on that housing list and still there is no sign of us getting a house. We’re at the mercy of landlords,” said Rita.

A city hall spokesman would not comment on the case but confirmed there were 7,010 people on its housing list and a “time-based allocation” system operated, with houses handed over depending on length of time on the housing list.

Threshold’s Cork manager Diarmaid O’Sullivan said they “regularly” dealt with people living in hostels who a year earlier were in their own homes.

He has warned that if rent supplement is cut again in the budget, more people will be pushed into homelessness.

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