Family living in freezing mobile
SABRINA Sweeney ( 20) is living in a damp mobile home with no heating in a temporary halting site in Finisklin.
The mother of two toddlers has pleaded with the council to move her to suitable accomodation but says her requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Sabrina has already featured in this newspaper last year. At the time she was also living in substandard accomodation at the same address. She says the council moved her from one mobile home to the ‘ Bay nextdoor.’
“One was as bad as the other really,” she explains. “I was told I had to take the Bay next door or me and my two children would be classed as homeless by the council. I couldn’t take that risk, so we moved last August.”
Sabrina who has been on a housing list for four years now says that the new mobile was not so bad at first as there was gas heating, but that broke down last November and has not worked properly since.
“The council are well aware of the heating problem here. They supplied me with electric heaters but when I plugged them in they overheat too quickly and I won’t risk using them in case of fire with my two children. There’s no way I would do that. I’m using a gas heater that my uncle let me borrow at the moment. But I have to give that back. The children are constantly sick. I keep them in woolly clothes and leave their coats on. I put extra blankets around them when they are sitting down and at night.”
Sabrina says the rooms are so damp that she has to drag the mattress into the sitting room which is marginally better to sleep. “It’s got to the stage now that the mattress is all damp too. I can’t let my children play outside as we are off a busy main road. This is no place for children, I just want somewhere to call home for them.”
A council spokesman would not comment on this case.