EVICTED FOR XMAS
Desperate mum & three kids facing holidays on street as hotel to shut
A HOMELESS mum and her children are being kicked out on to the streets for Christmas by a hotel.
Elaine Wall has been living with her three kids at Rochestown Lodge in Dublin but has been told to leave because it will be shut on December 24 and 25.
The 25-year-old said: “My little girl keeps asking, ‘Mummy when are we getting a house? When are we going home?
“I keep breaking down crying.”
A DISTRAUGHT mother of three is facing Christmas on the streets after a hotel told her she couldn’t stay for the holidays.
Elaine Wall has been living with her kids in Rochestown Hotel in Dublin’s Dun Laoghaire but is being kicked out as it plans to shut on December 24 and 25.
The devastated 25-year-old, whose partner Peter Conroy was stabbed to death in 2015, also revealed she is being intimidated by people connected to the horror killing for standing against them in court.
The brave young woman – who has spent the majority of her life homeless – has been “hounding” South Dublin County Council to try and get a roof over her head but told the Irish Mirror she is yet to get an answer, causing her to break down in front of her children.
Elaine said yesterday: “I have no support, nobody to help, I’m here with the kids every day and don’t know what’s happening.
“My little girl keeps asking, ‘Mummy when are we getting a house? When are we going home?’ I keep breaking down crying.
“I tell her we’re getting one soon but she keeps asking when we’re getting a home or when she’ll go to school.
“I can’t get her a school because we keep moving, I could be somewhere else tomorrow.
“They [the council] said they can’t do anything.”
Elaine and her young children – aged five, three, and one – have been living in the emergency accommodation hotel for just over a month, having stayed in a B&B in Clondalkin last year.
She said: “I’ve been suffering from depression, I’m supposed to be taking tablets but I can’t because of the kids being around.
“My little girl is asking when we’re going to see daddy, my other girl is upset because he’s not with us. It’s breaking my FOR heart. EVERY €45 My YOU little S girl was there when he got murdered. I’ve been ringing the council every day, I’ve been hounding them, pleading for them to help me.
“I’m not getting anything, they’re sitting back sipping their coffees.”
Elaine also revealed people connected to her partner’s killing have been threatening her and she can’t escape the harrowing death wherever she goes.
She added: “There’s people out to get me over it, I don’t know why, maybe because I stood up in court.
“They had been sending me messages, I had to delete my Facebook, they ring me from a private number. To be honest I don’t care, I need to speak up and let people know how I feel, I can’t hold it in anymore.”
Last year Terence “Terry” Connors was sentenced to five years for the brutal attack in Palmerstown Lodge B&B on Kennelsfort Road Lower in Dublin’s Palmerstown.
He was also given a two-month sentence for assaulting Elaine on the same day in June 2015.
During the trial, the court was told Connors had believed his children were in danger as fighting between guests at the B&B and non-residents intensified when he fatally stabbed Peter.
The victim’s parents branded the sentencing “a joke” with his father Frank saying: “Peter was a loving son. He was a rock to us. He was a loving father. He didn’t deserve to be killed the way he was killed.
“He got no justice. Seven years, with two suspended for another person’s life. Where’s the justice in that?”
Peter’s mother Marion had to fight
I’m meant
to be taking tablets for depression but I’ve got the kids
ELAINE WALL
DUBLIN YESTERDAY
back tears when she added: “How can you put a time on a person? Where is the justice?
“The justice system is a f***ing joke in this country.
“In any other country, he’d get more. You get more for robbing than you would for murder. His kids can see him walking around, go visit him. We will never see our son again.”
The Irish Mirror contacted South Dublin County Council who had not responded at the time of going to print.
But it previously said it does not comment on individual cases, adding: “When a family is granted homeless priority they would either be accommodated in a family hub or granted self-accommodate. This allows appli- cants to self-source hotel accommodation on a short-term basis.
“If a family cannot source hotel accommodation a freephone number is supplied and families can access accommodation through the family intake team on a night-by-night basis.
“In order to meet the increase in demand for homeless services and have the appropriate contingency plans in place for cold weather conditions, the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive has activated the Cold Weather Strategy for 2018 for the Dublin Region which enhances the services already available.”
LAST week the Irish Mirror revealed homeless families are being forced to leave their emergency accommodation hotels for Christmas.
Elaine Wall and her children are one such family who are facing the prospect of spending Christmas on the streets.
Many more will find themselves in a similar situation when the hotels, guest houses and B&BS close down for the festive season.
It is bad enough young children are being brought up in unsuitable accommodation for most of the year but leaving them without a roof over their heads at Christmas amounts to State-sponsored cruelty.
For almost a year Labour’s housing spokeswoman has been seeking to get approved her legislation that would force local councils to prioritise the housing of those with children ahead of others.
But it appears Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is as ideologically opposed to such a move as he is to building what were once known as council housing.
The Fine Gael Government has a shameful record when it comes to dealing with the homeless crisis and the half-hearted solutions it introduced has left the situation worse.
Only when there is an adequate supply of social housing will the cruel and damaging practice of dumping families in hotels end.