Wexford mother of five sleeping on floor with autistic child — ‘She can’t continue like this’

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

A mother-of-five is being forced to sleep on the floor beside her autistic child due to the lack of suitable housing options in the Enniscorthy Municipal District (EMD). Requesting that the family be transferred on medical grounds, Councillor Jackser Owens said the child in question needed a room of their own.

“They have got a consultant’s report to prove that the autistic child needs a room of their own, but they’re still waiting on the housing list (for a larger property) and will be on it for four or five years,” he said at the monthly meeting of the EMD. “She’s currently sleeping on the floor with the child. In a situation like this, when you’re up in the middle of the night with the child everyone is up. This child needs their own room, their own schedule.”

“In order to be transferred on medical grounds we need two reports, one from a consultant and one from a doctor,” replied housing officer Roseanne Redmond. “If that information is on file I can follow it up with the area officer.”

“She got a consultant’s report and sent it in to the council,” continued Cllr Owens. “She needs a four-bed house as soon as possible, we can’t wait two or three years for this, she can’t continue to sleep on the floor with her child in the room.”

Accepting that, when it came to four-bed houses in the district, demand was currently outstripping supply, director of services Carolyne Godkin said every effort was being made to free up more properties.

“We carry out an operation with under-occupied houses in the district where we write to people and ask them to consider a transfer (where they have vacant bedrooms) but we haven’t received any positive responses,” she said.

Separately, Cllr Owens said another person he was representing had received a transfer on medical grounds, but the proposed property was not suitable. Explaining that the tenant had been unable to access the stairs in her previous home and was sleeping on the couch, Cllr Owens said a new problem had arisen following the transfer.

“She was transferred to a bungalow, but there's no shower in the house. There’s no point moving into a house if you can’t get in the bath.”