Cork artist facing homelessness wants to 'strike a deal' and do up a derelict council home

Keith Anderson and his daughter are facing homelessness as their landlord is selling up 

Self-taught artist and former construction worker Keith Anderson is, along with his daughter facing homelessness. Picture: Larry Cummins

A Cork artist, whose work features on the cover of this year's celebrated Cork Christmas magazine the Holly Bough, is hoping to develop a derelict City Council house in exchange for the chance to live in it.

Keith Anderson wants to give it a try because he and his daughter Leah are facing homelessness.

The Douglas property he has rented for the past four years is being put on the market by the landlord for personal reasons.

Both father and daughter, who were given more than the statutory six months notice period they are entitled to, have until the end of the month to find a property or face living in a homeless hostel, or living on the streets.

Former construction worker Keith, who turned to art after building firms he worked for went bust in the crash, has tried to find another property but can’t.

Added to that, he is finding that some landlords are refusing to rent him their property when they find out he is on rent supplement.

“I have tried everything,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“I’ve tried looking for properties in the region of what I can afford and I am having no luck.

“Currently there are 49 properties available to rent in Cork city but only a handful of them are suitable and in my price bracket.

“I’ve been in touch with the council and they have told me that, although I have been on the housing waiting list for just over three years, there are others who are ahead of me.

“I don’t want to live on the streets, and I don’t want to live in a homeless hostel.

“I want a home for myself and my daughter.

Artis Keith Anderson, Douglas Cork, whose work features on this year's Holly Bough Christmas magazine. Picture: Dan Linehan

“If I can’t get something that is available, I might as well try and see if there is a derelict property I can go to the council about.

“There are loads of derelict or boarded up council houses around the city and I want to see if I can strike a deal with the council and do one up.”

There are currently about 420 people officially classified as homeless in Cork city.

This is the number of people who use emergency temporary accommodation, including hotel accommodation.

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The number of so-called “hidden homeless” - people who sleep on the floor or sofas of friends or family — is not known but could be at least double the number of the “official” homeless.

The Anderson family experience is a reminder that ordinary people are simply being priced out of the rental property market.

Pricey

Of the 49 properties for rent in Cork city at 1pm today, just four of them were for under €1,000-a-month, and two between €1,000 and €1,200, while a further seven were between €1,300 and €1,400 and 10, were for between €1,400 and €1,600.

A Community Action Tenants Union (CATAU) group has been set in the city to represent communities and tenants, including renters, council tenants, mortgage holders, and people in emergency and precarious living situations.

While city council officials have increased their work on dereliction in the city in recent years, it is the activities of designers Jude Sherry and Frank O'Connor who have helped place it back onto a more publicly visible agenda in Cork.

They have spent the last two years tweeting photographs of many of the 300 or so vacant and derelict properties they have found within a short radius of Cork city centre.