FERNS WOMEN FACING HOMELESSNESS DUE TO SALE OF RENTED HOMES
TWO Wexford families say they are facing homelessness after their landlord agreed to sell their private rented homes to Wexford County Council to add to its housing stock.
Neighbours, Nicola Webster (nee Lynch), a single, working mother of three, and Mary Carr say they are totally exasperated after the council paid deposits on the houses they have been renting in the Grange, Ferns, for the past four years, without offering them ‘a realistic alternative for accomodation’.
‘They are buying our houses for homeless people, by making us homeless,’ said Mary.
‘We don’t blame our landlord, he has the right to sell his property, but the result of the council agreeing to buy them is that we will be put out of them,’ she said.
Nicola, who has three children, teenagers Jordan and Alicia, and Braydn, aged 11, said she was struggling to keep a roof over her children’s heads and particularly for her youngest who had autism and needed a routine and familiar surroundings.
She said the council had told herself and her neighbour that the purchase of the houses would not be completed until such time that they were vacated, but they are being urged to leave by their landlord, who they did not identify. A third house already has been sold after being vacated by its tenant.
Mary said their landlord had tried to get them to leave by the end of last month so he could complete the sale by offering the council vacant possession, although this had been deferred for a short time.
‘We are both fighting it together,’ said Nicola, ‘I just need somewhere that the kids and I can call home and we’ve been put through hell.’
Nicola said that both she and Mary were priced out of a market in which rents are soaring and the council had offered to try to find them temporary accommodation in their a B and B or a hostel.
‘We are not after free housing, we just need a roof over our heads,’ she said, ‘we’re going to be made homeless because we’re not on the housing list.’
‘It’s a total contradiction,’ said Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin, who has made representation on behalf of Mary Carr to the local authority.
‘It wouldn’t make sense to me to put somebody out to acquire houses for social housing. There was a breakdown in communication somewhere, and a lot depends on what the landlord told the council when the houses were put up for sale. They may not have been made fully aware,’ he said.
‘But it’s not a satisfactory situation and accommodation needs to be found ASAP, I’ll be approaching the council. The root problem is that under-funded councils have stopped building social housing,’ he said.
Asked to comment, Wexford County Council said it was not policy to comment on individual housing cases.
However, the council said the houses ‘which are the subject matter of your enquiry’ were offered for sale on the open market in late 2016.
‘Following inspection of the properties, and confirmation of social housing need in the area, Wexford County Council entered negotiations to purchase these properties, to be allocated for social housing,’ said a council spokesperson.
‘It should be noted that these houses were offered for sale on the open market prior to Wexford County Council expressing an interest in their acquisition,’ he said.
The spokesman said Wexford County Council is carrying out an ambitious housing capital programme, designed to ensure as many of our housing applicants as possible are provided with social housing solutions suited to their needs.
‘A significant element of this programme is the purchase by Wexford County Council of appropriately priced and suitable houses in areas of identified social housing need which have been offered for sale on the open market,’ he said.