A MOTHER and her 10 children are living in a city council house with raw sewerage coming back through the toilets and shower, flooding rooms and the back garden.
Lisa Clarke, her partner, and her children – aged 18 months to 19 years – have been living in “a house or horrors” since they moved into Mulgrave Street 18 months ago, she told the Limerick Post.
“Every day since we moved in the garden has been flooded with sewerage. The toilets fill up with it and it comes up through the shower drain and floods out into the rooms.
“The children can’t sleep in any of the rooms that are ensuite because it comes back up the toilet bowl. I have to put mattresses on the floor of the living room and take them up again every day.
Lisa says she has to take her children daily to her mother’s home to bathe them.
“We’re being forced to live like pigs – these conditions are not human,” she says.
Lisa says she had been pleading with the council to find her and her family alternative accommodation or to fix the problem.
A professional drain clearing company has made three attempts, she said, to clear the issue so that waste can flow away freely and the local authority has sent workers to dig up the back yard, but nothing has so far solved the issue.
“The kids are getting sick all the time. All of us are coming down with viruses. This house is making us all sick and my own mental health is suffering trying to cope with it.
“I have to be on top form to look after everybody but I’m not and it’s because of the conditions we’re living in.”
“They want us to move out but they say they won’t accommodate my partner because he’s not a tenant and they won’t accommodate my three eldest children.
“He has nowhere to go and I have nowhere to put the eldest children. I’ve asked family but they just don’t have room.
“I don’t want to split the family up. We don’t even know how long we would have to be out of the house. We really don’t want to live here anymore. It’s been a nightmare from day one.”
In a statement prompted by queries from the Limerick Post, a spokeswoman for the Peter McVerry Trust said the organisation is “working closely with all relevant parties to rectify the situation and has found alternative temporary accommodation for the family until it is resolved”.
“The issue is caused by a burst sewage pipe and unfortunately impacts numerous properties on the street. Peter McVerry Trust is responsible for providing housing supports and wear and tear maintenance for this Limerick City and County Council tenancy,” the spokeswoman explained
“As the property is privately owned, we are not responsible for structural issues, but will work closely with all parties to remedy the situation as quickly as possible to ensure the best outcome for this family.”
