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25 April 2014

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Mother and 3 kids living in car denied social housing

Irish Daily Mirror, April 25


A MOTHER AND HER THREE YOUNG CHILDREN being forced to live in their car because they are homeless is an indictment of the failure of Fine Gael and Labour Party social housing policy, Tallaght Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine says.

The plight of Sabrina McMahon (36) and her three children – Chelsea (18 months) , three-year-old Michaela and five-year-old Karl – has been highlighted in today’s Irish Daily Mirror, The Irish Times and on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland by the Sinn Féin councillor.

The Sinn Féin councillor has been making representations on behalf of Sabrina and her children for the past year.

Now she is living from the boot of her car and sleeping in the vehicle with her children. A friend lets her wash and do her laundry in her house.

Sabrina had spent the previous year staying with relatives and friends, some of whom have risked their tenancy arrangements to help the Tallaght woman since her relationship with the children’s father broke up a year ago. She’s not been able to access private accommodation as many landlords won’t accept rent allowance claimants.

Sabrina is originally from Tallaght and returned there after her home in Athy, County Kildare, was “attacked by thugs and she no longer felt safe in the area”, the Irish Daily Mirror reported. But because she is registered in Kildare, she and her children were refused emergency accommodation by South Dublin County Council.

Sabrina told the Irish Daily Mirror:

“They have told me that I have to go back to Kildare but my life is here. This is where I’m from. One of the boys is settled in school and my three-year-old has to go to speech therapy in Dublin as well.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Máire Devine said:

“This is one of the worst cases but homelessness and housing is now the biggest issue in my clinics. It’s a tsunami and no one in Government seems to have any policy on it, any plan, any direction on this disaster that is affecting thousands of ordinary people.”

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