Elderly face homeless crisis due to rising rents, warns charity
IRELAND is facing an elderly homeless crisis with thousands of pensioners unable to afford rent, a charity has revealed.
Alone, which helps elderly people to live at home, launched a campaign yesterday called ‘How will you pay the rent when you retire?’
Veteran broadcaster Vincent Brown, who was supporting the launch, said: ‘Around 900,000 people in Ireland earn less than €13,000 and they are below the poverty line... How do people live on that?’
Alone has also highlighted how the contributory State pension is €1,032.63 per month, but the average market rent in Ireland is €1,227.
In 2016, there were 15,883 people over 60 living in the private rented sector.
The idea behind yesterday’s launch followed a tragic story about a 71-year-old pensioner called Frank who lost his home at Christmas when his landlord decided to sell up. He had nowhere to go and spoke out about the difficulties he faced trying to convince a landlord to rent to him.
Yesterday, Alone CEO Sean Moynihan said ‘This is a follow-up to Frank’s story – that was the Christmas story of a man who had two days left in his tenancy, which was private rented. So, what we are trying to do is build on that.
‘We want the Government to go back and look at rebuilding Ireland for an aging population. There’s been very little conversation in the housing crisis about older people’s housing needs. I think people who are in their 30s, 40s and 50s, they have a big concern on their hands, How are you going to pay the rent when you retire?
‘These older people are already in that situation, we have extra numbers of older people. Our pension system is based on older people owning their own houses, so how will those people pay their rent? You lose most of your income when you retire.
‘In fairness to all the councils up and down the country, they will do everything to keep older people out of homeless services. But as the numbers increase, can they hold that line? House ownership is dropping and everyone is only 200 days away from being homeless.’
Noel Murphy is 71 years old and lives in Dublin. He became homeless five years ago when he separated from his wife and moved out of their home. He said he had had the good fortune of getting into Alone.
‘I never slept on couches, thank God, when I became homeless. I went and moved to the hostels but that is a horrible experience,’ he said.
‘I was homeless for about four years, moving from hostel to hostel. They can be very dangerous but in the end I got my own room with Dublin City Council and hence they got me in touch with Alone. They said I deserved better than where I was.
‘There are hostels out there and I can understand why people don’t feel safe, you don’t know who you are moving in with. I used to get my stuff and roll it up and put it under my pillow. I didn’t know who I was surrounded by and I had one bag and went from place to place. I am glad that’s over.’
Mr Murphy, who is originally from Longford, moved to Dublin when he was 17 and worked in England for a number of years.
The former security officer met his wife at 28 and got married. They had two children. However, they split around five years ago after 38 years of marriage.
He said: “I ended up with nothing. You lose everything but there is no point in letting it get you down, you keep plodding on. My family are very good to me and visit every week. Not everybody is that lucky, because there is such a backlog of people looking for accommodation and I got my place. I’m in Old Kilmainham and it’s a whole complex built.
‘Alone is carrying on the good work for older people and I am lucky to be where I am.’ Meanwhile, another man, who is approaching his 70th birthday, said he was a survivor of the industrial homes.
He and five siblings were separated as children. He said he was still in an ‘unsafe’ accommodation and could not reveal his identity for fear his landlord would evict him.
The man said he had been given an extra €40 per week from Alone, which had ‘been of huge help’. With a past in the industrial homes he feels very damaged and is looking for his brother, who is missing or possibly dead.
He said: ‘Myself and my brother were in the Artane industrial home, so we experienced a lot of damage. It is not my fault what happened to us. People like me really need the Government’s support.’
‘Hostels can be very dangerous’