Father and disabled son living in rat-infested bus get offers to clear €850 rent arrears

The yard where Patrick and Adrian Walsh are living in an old, yellow minibus, with no running water or mains electricity. File picture: Larry Cummins

Generous offers have been made to clear rent arrears for a disabled homeless man who has been living in a rat-infested bus outside Blarney with his father so that they may be eligible for council housing support.

Following media coverage in recent days, offers were made to clear Adrian Walsh’s €850 debt to Cork City Council.

Adrian Walsh, 37, and Patrick Walsh, 62, who became Adrian’s sole carer when his mother died suddenly in May, have been living in the converted bus, using a bucket outside for a toilet and using freezing and dirty river water to bathe and wash their dishes in.

Their clothes have to be replaced regularly because they are gnawed on by vermin which also eat their way into their fridge and freezer. At night, the pair can hear rats scurry inches from their heads, just beneath the long bench they both sleep on.

Patrick thanked the kind donors for their generosity, saying “we are so happy to hear that”. 

Clearing the debt and registering their housing need with Cork City Council will entitle the family to register for council accommodation - a long-term solution which is likely to take a number of years due to high demand and limited housing stock. 

They could also immediately apply for emergency accommodation, which could get them into a B&B before winter. 

But Patrick said that because they have two Jack Russell dogs, they are unlikely to get a place in emergency accommodation.

Adrian’s brother Barry said that one of the dogs has been a huge help in Adrian’s recovery following a brain injury which has left him severely cognitively impaired. They do not know anyone who could take the dogs for them.

Once registered with the council, the pair can also apply to rent publicly with assistance from Happ, but a social worker close to the case said that competition is fierce for rental accommodation and they think it is unlikely that they would secure a place.

Adrian's brother Barry said that two council-owned houses close to where he lives in Mayfield are currently available — a two-bed bungalow which was recently posted on the council’s housing stock website and a house in his own estate which was fully renovated in February but has been boarded up since.

“I don’t understand why so many houses in my area are boarded up when people need them,” he said. 

“If they [Patrick and Adrian] were close to me I could care for them more.” 

Last week, Cork City Council secured €4.2m in funding from central government to refurbish 179 homes.

Director of Housing Tadhg Keating said: “Cork City Council welcomes the allocation from the Government’s July Stimulus Programme. This will result in 179 properties being refurbished and returned to stock before year-end”

Local councillor Mick Nugent said that getting these houses quickly on stream would “make some small dent in the housing list”.

Work on one estate in Mayfield — where six houses currently sit vacant — has already begun since the funding announcement, Mr Nugent said.

On Friday, Mr Nugent and Sinn Féin colleagues Thomas Gould TD and Mandy O’Leary Hegarty are meeting residents in housing estates across Mayfield to hear residents’ concerns about the number of vacant properties in the area.

Professionals who have worked with the family are appealing for anyone who has a vacant property which they could rent to Patrick and Adrian, or to anyone who has a piece of land where a caravan could be put temporarily to please get in touch with Saint Vincent de Paul.