'It's one of the best feelings I ever had': Homeless Corkman moves into new apartment

Jonathan O’Mahony, 31, spent two years in emergency accommodation before being allocated an apartment in the new €30m Cascade social housing project in Carrigtwohill, East Cork

Jonathan O'Mahony on the balcony of his new apartment: 'To have a home now is one of the best feelings I’ve ever had — to have a place that’s safe and secure.' Picture David Creedon

From homelessness and despair to a new home and hope — a young father says a new social housing project has transformed his life.

Jonathan O’Mahony, 31, originally from Cobh in Co Cork, spent two years in emergency accommodation before being allocated an apartment in the new €30m Cascade social housing project in Carrigtwohill, East Cork, which was officially opened on Friday.

“It was very, very difficult being in emergency accommodation. I felt helpless and hopeless,” Jonathan told the Irish Examiner.

“I was worried about if I ever put a roof over my kids’ heads. It was heartbreaking at times. Even getting out of bed some days was very difficult.

But to have a home now is one of the best feelings I’ve ever had — to have a place that’s safe and secure.”

The previously unfinished apartment block had lain vacant and derelict for 17 years, had been branded an eyesore and faced calls for it to be finished or blown up before it was taken on by approved housing body Co-operative Housing Ireland (CHI) and completed.

It is now the largest social housing project delivered by an approved housing body in Munster this year.

With 95 A-rated two-bedroom apartments, it will meet the needs of smaller households in a county where 74% of the current social housing need is for one and two-bed homes.

Just over a fifth of the unit is designated for older persons, with nine households, including Mr O'Mahony, drawn from emergency accommodation.

As Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien visited on Friday, Mr O'Mahony spoke of how his life spiralled out of control following the birth of his first daughter in 2019. He lost his job, his home, and ended up in emergency accommodation.

“It wasn’t a suitable environment for a child. I wasn’t able to have my daughter stay with me and I lost out on two years of connection with her. But I had to keep fighting, keep pushing forward," he said.

"I knew my life was spiralling out of control. And a point came where I knew I didn’t have much time left. I was dying basically and I knew I had one chance to turn my life around, and if I didn’t take it, I wasn’t going to survive.

“I had to change my life for the better. I knew I had to make a massive change, so I got into recovery, and working with the services like Cork County Council, Focus Ireland, and others, I got out of it.” 

Jonathan O' Mahony with his daughter Freya in their new apartment: 'I had my daughter over for her first sleepover in my new apartment, and to see the smile on her face, it was just magic.' Picture: David Creedon 

He praised CHI and its local housing officer Evan Aylward and said when he first saw his new apartment, he was stunned.

“I walked into the sitting room and thought ‘Oh my God, this is fantastic’,” he said.

I was never so excited to put a washing machine into a kitchen. And I had my daughter’s room mapped out in my head.

“Just to be able to sit down in my own place and have a dinner, to be able to wash my clothes in my own washing machine.

“I had my daughter over for her first sleepover in my new apartment, and to see the smile on her face, it was just magic.

“I can hold my head high knowing that I'm doing the best I can. I have a job, I’m paying my bills, my kids are fed, it’s a totally different life to what I had two years ago — it’s just fantastic, I feel gratitude and hope.” 

But he said he and others felt "lost" in the emergency accommodation system.

He urged the Government to provide greater supports for those in the system with mental health and addiction issues, and to ramp up funding for approved housing bodies.

CHI chairperson Pearse O’Shiel said following construction delays caused by covid and the impacts of the war in Ukraine, the housing body plans to deliver 700 homes this year — up from 190 in 2017.

Mr O’Brien insisted the Cascade project was another sign of progress.

“We delivered more new social homes in 2022 that we've done for 50 years — and we are catching up,” he said.

“There's no question that not everybody's feeling that. I'm acutely aware of that. I meet families, and I talk to people every single day of the week, and I just want them to be assured that we're making progress. And we are turning the corner on housing delivery.”