THE Limerick branch of Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) recently held a demonstration in support of residents of the Shannon Arms apartments.
The residents in the Shannon Arms on Henry Street are currently facing mass evictions from several landlords.
Limerick CATU branch co-chair Ruairi Fahy, said that the state of the housing crisis in Limerick means that, if evicted, these families will have almost no chance of finding a new home.
“There are consistently less than ten homes available to rent in the city, and those that are affordable for people not on massive incomes are few and far between.
“There has been a failure by the government to bring in appropriate legislation to ensure that tenants can’t be evicted into homelessness and even with the limited protections that exist there is almost no enforcement.
“In the case of the Shannon Arms apartments, if it wasn’t for CATU, tenants wouldn’t have known that they could appeal, what appear to be, illegal evictions.”
More than 100 people are due to be evicted at the end of May at this site due to alleged renovations at the property. However, some of the apartments that have already been vacated have now been re-occupied.
One re-occupied two-bedroom apartment at the Shannon Arms complex was recently shared by seven English language students, who were only given a three-week lease. CATU say they suspect that this mass eviction of existing tenants will serve to further raise the rents across the property to benefit the landlords.
CATU Limerick have been liaising with the Shannon Arms tenants over a number of weeks to offer support and information. The branch has also contacted a number of TDs, which led the mass evictions being discussed in the Dáil.
More information here catuireland.org
