“The insecurity is unbearable. I’ve literally had a nervous breakdown because of it”.
A LIMERICK mother who has been on the housing waiting list for 14 years has been told there is no hope of her getting her own home.
The mother of two, who does not wish to be named publicly says he State has paid in excess of 78,000 to her landlord rather than house her.
“They say that because I’m privately renting a comfortable house that I don’t need housing but the reality is that my landlord can give me notice to quit at any time.
“I want to know that if I plant tulip bulbs in the garden that I’ll be here to see them come up. The insecurity is unbearable. I’ve literally had a nervous breakdown because of it”.
The Limerick woman said that for the first five years of privately renting her house in the city, she was working and paid the rent without any outside help.
But after suffering serious health problems, she became unemployed and qualified for rent allowance.
She told the Limerick Post that she does not want her bills paid and would rather be paying rent to the city council and have the security of knowing that she can stay put.
“I have no problems at all with my landlord but in nine years and nine months, they have paid him more than €78,000 in rent allowance and that’s not including my contribution – they seem quite happy to go on paying,” she said.
The mother of two is also upset at what she perceives to be an unfair system of allocations. ‘”Everyone in this city knows there are city council houses where people who have broken the law or are doing terrible anti-social things are living. People who have been made homeless because they had their rent allowance stopped after they were caught working without declaring it have been given houses. I know this as a fact.
I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve never broken the law – the only thing that anyone will find against me is two outstanding parking tickets”.
Deputy Jan O’Sullivan confirmed that she has made representations on the woman’s behalf, including pointing out empty houses which she asked the city council to consider allocating to the distraught applicant.
‘”She really does need to be housed and this has to be an issue, The fact that someone is that long on the waiting list has to be taken as a factor when deciding if she is eligible”.
Cllr John Gilligan has also tried to help.
“It’s absolutely incredible that anyone could be so long on the waiting list. We have 3,000 people waiting for housing in this city and we are now told we are not building any more houses. We’re not even going through the motions of trying to tackle it. :”If we gave this woman a house, she would be paying rent to us but instead we’re throwing money at the problem without even trying to find a solution”.
A spokesman for Limerick City Council’s housing department said they cannot comment on individual applicants.
