A WOMAN who says she has been on the local authority housing list for more than 17 years has taken to protesting outside the housing department of Limerick City and County Council.
Mother of four, Claire McNamara and her partner Tom Keogh are stressed and concerned about the future as their four-year-old daughter Lacey is severely autistic, non-verbal, developing increasing mobility problems and wakes screaming in the night.
Lacey cannot climb stairs and her parents want a house with a downstairs bathroom and are hoping that a council house will give her and them some degree of stability, as Lacey’s condition means she finds change very difficult.
Claire told the Limerick Post: “We’re just at the limit. We were given notice to quit in the house we’re renting privately three years ago and the only reason we’re not out on the street is that the landlord hasn’t sold the house yet.
“Lacey’s needs have to dictate where we can live because she has terrible mobility problems. She’s black and blue from falling down all the time and she’s not going to get any lighter. We can’t keep carrying her upstairs to use the bathroom.”
Claire agrees that the council have made offers but she says that none of them were suitable for Lacey, as there was no downstairs bathroom in them and some were in an area of the city which she says is “littered with hypodermic needles and people standing on corners, waiting to buy drugs. It’s not a place my daughter or any of my children could live.”
In a complicated series of exchanges, Claire says she was led to believe that she was to be offered a house in Corbally, which would have been “ideal” but that offer never materialised.
After writing an official letter of complaint to the local authority about her treatment, Claire is planning to take the matter to the Ombudsman.
“I’ve started this protest because I don’t know what else to do. This isn’t like me. I’m a private person but my family will have nowhere to live. I’m not going away until something is sorted.”
Limerick City and County Council Housing Department says it does not comment on individual cases.
