Wexford mother sleeping in car so her child can continue to attend local school
Wexford PeopleA young Wexford mother has chosen to sleep in her car rather than avail of emergency accommodation so that her child can continue to attend a local school. With homeless families in the county frequently being uprooted to accommodation in bed and breakfasts far away from their home place, Councillor Jim Codd has called on the council to increase the number of beds it has for those who find themselves with nowhere else to go.
“How many people have we in bed and breakfasts?” he asked at the May meeting of Wexford County Council (WCC). “I’m constantly being contacted by people who are travelling from one end of the county to the other to bring their children to school. A woman told me her two daughters are sleeping in their cars while they have their domestic appliances in a trailer, they don’t want to go into a bed and breakfast at the other end of the county because it would prevent one of their children from continuing in school.
“We’re paying a fortune for bed and breakfasts, would it not be wiser to have more long-term accommodation? The number of homeless people is not going down, it continues to grow, we should be looking for a permanent solution; we’re going to need it.”
According to director of housing Carolyne Godkin, WCC has “approximately 40 beds” between Ozanam House (de Paul) and the bed and breakfasts it lets across the county, and while she sympathised with those who have been moved away from their local areas, she said the council’s focus was “on getting people back into sustainable tenancies”.
Chief executive Eddie Taaffe expanded upon this.
“The permanent solution is the construction of social housing,” he said. “We have met our social housing target years ahead of schedule and are continuing to over-produce, that will continue to be our focus.”
Sinn Féin councillor Tom Forde had also been assisting those living in emergency accommodation, and he asked whether the council could find a solution for particularly vulnerable families.
“There are some children with additional needs who have been in emergency accommodation for a number of months,” he said. “It’s May now, could we resolve this before the start of the new school year? I’ve seen first-hand how much this impacts on their education.”
“This is not ideal,” agreed Ms Godkin, “we will do our best with those families.”