‘I was at rock bottom, but getting a home cures everything,’ says mum who had to sleep in a camper van

Deborah Donnelly says her children ended up being ‘scattered’ around

A Dublin mother of three who lost her home in 2018 has said that having her own space again is like a dream following the “rock-bottom” experience of homelessness.

Artist Deborah Donnelly, from Stillorgan, moved into her new apartment in Leopardstown with her two daughters three weeks ago.

The 55-unit complex in Kiln View was delivered through the Iveagh Trust, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Park Developments and the Housing Department.

The Iveagh Trust is a registered charity founded by the Guinness family to provide housing in Dublin, and provides 1,640 social homes across the capital.

Ms Donnelly and her partner, from whom she is now separated, were both hard-working, self-employed people who were badly hit during the worldwide recession and, in particular, after the collapse of Irish Nationwide Building Society.

She described the situation as a “perfect storm for homelessness”, leaving her son, who is now 22, and daughters, now 15 and 17, without a place to call their own.

“We moved nine times in six years,” Ms Donnelly said. “Certain memories stand out for me, like the time I was late collecting my daughter from school and she walked back to our old home as she didn’t know where to go or what to do.

“The private rental market is tough, especially being a single parent who is older and an artist.”

To have somewhere to live, Ms Donnelly would take short-term leases and tackle the competition for private rentals by offering to pay six months in advance.

At the time, she had to borrow “fake car loans” from the credit union just to make sure her children had somewhere to live.

“In the summer, I had a camper van I parked on Dún Laoghaire pier with all the other working homeless, and I felt safe there,” she said.

However, a height restriction was brought in at the pier, which meant she could no longer park there to get to her studio in Marlay Park in Rathfarnham

Ms Donnelly said being homeless in winter was a choice of “life and death”.

She said one of the biggest losses from the whole experience was “mothering her children”, as being forced to live in a van meant she could not prepare meals and had to buy all the food pre-made.

During those six or seven months, she said her children were scattered between family, and she would be begged by them not to sleep in her van.

“I had a bag with my pillow, sheet and duvet in it and I couch-surfed on the cold days,” she said. “This felt like rock bottom for me.”

The struggle she went through when it came to being homeless “broke everything”, including having a traumatic effect on her marriage and her children.

The dream she always had was “so small”, simply imagining the type of keyring she would have for the keys of her new home.

When the Iveagh Trust called her after years on a waiting list, it was a huge relief.

“I’m an artist, I never want to own a super yacht,” she said. “I would rather have flowers on my table than diamonds on my neck.

“If my art ever makes it globally, I will hit the donate button on the Iveagh Trust website because a home is a cure. A home cures everything.”

She added that the man who recently dropped off her washing machine said he loved delivering to the building as the residents were all “so happy”.

“If my art ever makes it globally, I will hit the donate button on the Iveagh Trust website”