Single mum of five stages sit-in over homelessness fears

A single mother of five, who is facing eviction from her home, has pledged to stage a sit-in protest at City Hall in Limerick every day until the council gives her a new home.

Desperate Grace Healy said her local authority informed her that she was “not a priority” for entitlement to a council home, even though she has been told to vacate her property by a bank, after the house went into receivership.

Ms Healy, 34, who said she has worked all her life and is “not a sponger”, had to give up work to mind her youngest child.

She said she can pay the €675 rent on her current home through the rent supplement scheme but the current owners have told her they want to sell it.

Ms Healy, who is separated, said she was told to move out of the house by November 2 last year, but has stayed in the property in the intervening six months because she has nowhere else to go.

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She said local TDs have told her she will not be a priority for local authority housing because she has not been on the council’s waiting list up until now.

Staging a sit-in protest at the housing department of Limerick City and County Council yesterday, Ms Healy said: “I have no intention of leaving here until I get an answer on when I can get a house for my children. I’m on my own and looking after five kids.”

“I was told by the council to bring the kids to a local hostel, but I don’t want to have my kids living in a hostel. They deserve a home where we can all be together.”

Ms Healy said her five children, aged 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13, are now feeling the stress of the situation.

“The council said I’m not a high priority. The bank are sending me letters every day telling me to go. I’m currently living in in a four bedroom house but I’m willing to downsize to a three-bedroom house for the six of us.

“I asked the council would they buy the house from the owner and they said they didn’t have the funds,” she said.

“I’m not expecting a house today or tomorrow but you’d think I would at least be given some hope. The council are offering me none. I’ll actually have to be homeless before they’ll even speak to me, and then I don’t even know what they can do for me.”

In response, Limerick City and County Council said: “The Homelessness Unit, involving Limerick City and County Council, the HSE, and the Department of Social Protection is happy to engage with any individual that is homeless or at risk of homelessness.”

However, Ms Healy added: “I’m getting nowhere but I won’t leave City Hall until I get my children a proper home. I want some information so I can give them some hope.”

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