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Mums left homeless

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Several young mothers and their children have been forced into homelessness after their rent allowance payments were cut.
Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance was contacted by a number of young mothers in the Dún Laoghaire area who were made homeless when community welfare officers with the Health Services Executive (HSE) decided to discontinue the welfare subsidy.
The decision to stop the payments was made because of rent increases imposed on the women in their former private rented accommodation, which meant they exceeded the thresholds set by the HSE for such payments.
A single mother of two children, 24-year-old Sinead Watters who lived with her two young children – Liam (7) and Aaron (5) – in private rented accommodation in a house in Cherrywood, was made homeless eight weeks ago.
She had been paying e1,100 per month for her accommodation but was unable to afford the monthly payments after her landlord increased the rent to e1,500.

She asked her community welfare officer to increase her allowance to avoid eviction.
However, she claimed her payment was discontinued by the officer as he maintained she wasn’t entitled to a contribution at all if she was paying rent in excess of e1,200.
“I explained the situation that I couldn’t find anywhere else to live and had to move out at the end of February but he said there was nothing he could do,” she told Southside People. “He said he couldn’t make exceptions just for me.”
Conditions
Sinead is currently living with Liam and Aaron in a homeless hostel in Monkstown.
Describing the conditions there, she said: “The toilet is overflowing and is leaking at the bottom. The house is really cold and one of my kids has asthma. He is really sick sometimes in here.
“My kids are out of their routine now. They are away from their friends, they are suffering in school and it is horrible for them. I don’t care about myself but my kids have been taken away from everything they know.”
She added that she was finding it difficult to source suitable alternative accommodation in the area because rents were too expensive to qualify for rent allowance.
Mr Boyd Barrett said he knew of another local woman who had just given birth to her fourth child, and was also made homeless for the same reason.
He described both women’s situations as “absolutely outrageous”.
He said the rent caps being set by the HSE and the Department of Family and Social Affairs were “completely unrealistic” in comparison to the rents being charged by private landlords in areas like Dún Laoghaire.
He pointed out that a single mother with two children requiring a two-bedroom home would not receive rent allowance if the rent exceeded e1,200 per month. Similarly, a couple with one child also requiring a two-bed home would not receive rent allowance if the rent exceeded e1,000 per month.
“It is virtually impossible to find two bedroom accommodation for anything less than e1,400-e1,500 in Dún Laoghaire or many parts of Dublin these days,” he said.
“This totally callous policy of forcing mothers, families and young children into homelessness must stop immediately.
“In the short-term, the rent caps must be increased to realistic levels that make it possible for people to find private rented accommodation and still receive rent allowance.
Actions
“The HSE policy of discontinuing rent allowance to people whose rent is increased above the thresholds through the actions of their landlords must be halted,” he added.
A spokesperson for the HSE said the Department of Social and Family Affairs set the rent allowance ceilings.
A spokesperson for the Department of Social and Family Affairs said data protection legislation precluded them from commenting on individual cases.
However, in relation to the limit on the amount of rent that qualified for an allowance, she said the threshold differed from county to county and took the household size and other relevant circumstances into account.
“This is to ensure that the level of rent is reasonable and that the rent supplement scheme is not subsidising the cost of overly large or overly expensive accommodation,” she said.

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