VIDEO: Mum forced to split up family as no emergency accommodation available

A single mother-of-three was forced to split up her family after being told that there was no emergency family accommodation available in Dublin City.

Danielle Dyer, 25, from Coolock, had to send her children to live with relatives after being told there was no suitable accommodation for her and her children aged eight, five, and two.

Video: Fergal Phillips

Danielle, homeless since late July, was told by Dublin City Council to source emergency accommodation, herself — two weeks after the council’s credit card was reportedly maxed out.

“The council told me to find my own accommodation but everywhere I rang turned me down. Finally a charity paid for my first night and the council paid for two more. Then I was kicked out onto the streets again.”

Danielle had lived in private rented accommodation but had been told by the council to cancel her rent allowance payments when the property became infested with parasitic insects and had no hot water.

“There was bed bugs in my old place and I had no hot water, so I went to the council and explained my situation. But now I’m left walking the streets with nowhere to go and my kids are broken up into different homes. My eight-year-old daughter is crying her heart out missing her mom and her brothers.”

After contacting Dublin City Council, Danielle was told emergency accommodation was available for men but not women and children.

“If I was a man on my own, I was told they’d have a place for me in a hostel but I’m a mother with three children. Why would they even tell me that? We’re being moved out to strange places for a night or two then money is cut or the hotel kicks us out. It’s like they’re all playing ping pong with human beings.”

A Dublin City Council spokesperson said: “Dublin City Council do ask clients to self accommodate but refute the statement only offering accommodation to parents and not their children. The current challenge is accessing emergency accommodation for the unprecedented number of families who are becoming homeless.”

Anthony Flynn, director of charity Inner City Helping Homeless, says it is seeing a rise in families locked out of emergency accommodation who could lose their children due to the housing crisis.

“We have come across families who have been asked if they children can be sent to a family member while hostel accommodation is offered to the parents. Families are being broken up and if the intake team come across a family sleeping rough a referral is going to be made to social services. It’s just not acceptable to be taking children away from their parents and splitting up families,” he said.