Cork: Girl's Letter To President Exposes The Misery Endured By Homeless People

A copy of the letter sent to President Higgins by a schoolgirl about her family.

•  

By Noel Baker
Senior Reporter

"I live in a bedroom with my mom, two brothers and two sisters; that’s six of us in a bedroom, you can’t be a family not like this.

“So Mr President I am asking for your help to help my family. Christmas is coming and I would like for us to be in a home call friends over little thinks like that mean alot when your a child.”

It’s easy to look past the spelling when reading the poignant words of a schoolgirl writing directly to President Michael D Higgins, in a letter released by Focus Ireland yesterday.

According to staff at the homelessness charity, many other families around the country are facing a similarly dire housing situation, battling to keep a roof over their heads, crammed into inadequate accommodation.

www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/helpline-assists-a-quarter-of-callers-at-risk-of-homelessness-to-remain-in-their-homes-1.1924634

The little girl and her family met with President Higgins on Monday at a special event hosted at Áras an Uachtaráin.

The heartbreaking appeal from the girl to the President, written in simple but compelling language, highlights the stark reality faced by many families as they struggle to compete with soaring rental costs and a shortage of social housing.

Yesterday Focus Ireland’s manager for Cork and Limerick, Ger Spillane, said that while families living in hotels and B&Bs has been a feature in Dublin for some time, it is now occurring in Cork for the first time.

“There would be anything between 15 and 20 families in emergency accommodation in Cork City,” he said, adding that “two or three” of those could be in hotels.

He said there was often a fear among families that they might be “broken up” because of the nature of emergency accommodation — with some places unable to take male children older than 13.

He said anecdotally, there was now a suggestion that some women are holding back from leaving a situation of domestic violence because some of the children may not be able to be accommodated in some of the emergency centres.

In July the Focus Ireland Cork office dealt with 110 people, up from 40 people a month early last year.

Mr Spillane said there were real fears that the changing economic situation may mean more families are pushed into homelessness, despite signs of recovery.

He said one example was apartments being taken into receivership from landlords — resulting in tenants being expelled. He also said there were concerns that some families with rent arrears might see their homes being targeted by banks in future when they move from negative to positive equity — as the properties will be more appealing to banks

As for the family of the little girl, Focus Ireland said they are “a really lovely family” and it was “terrible to see the pressure they are under all living in the B&B”.

“The family understand it’s not up to the President to fix the situation,” a spokesman said. “It was just a child writing a letter to the President as he was coming to visit. The mother knows the situation needs to be resolved by the Government and the relevant local authorities.”

----------