Soaring rents are trapping increasing numbers of people in overcrowded conditions in Dublin, according to the voluntary agency Focus Ireland. The agency is having extreme difficulty in finding rental accommodation for people receiving Eastern Health Board rent subsidies.
A lone parent who has been searching for accommodation since last August told The Irish Times she had been able to get only one appointment to view an apartment in that time. It was almost impossible to find a landlord who would accept children and a rent subsidised by the EHB at the same time, she said.
Focus Ireland runs a free flat-finding service for people on low incomes and has experienced increasingly lengthy delays in finding accommodation, according to Ms Patricia McAuley who manages the service.
Some people who came to the service before Christmas were unable to find accommodation until April or May, she said. "There's no cheap area any more. What was £350 to £400 a month last year is £550 to £600 now." The people using the service include asylum-seekers, who are in the majority, and Irish people.
Ms Veronica Quinlan moved to Dublin from a Co Cork village last year with her two children. At first she stayed in her sister's flat in Rathmines, "but I was caught by the landlord and he told me to go". Her sister got another flat, and Ms Quinlan and her children moved in with her again as unauthorised tenants and were again moved on by the landlord.
Now they share a one-bedroom flat with her boyfriend who is also on social welfare. The landlord has not yet moved her on. Ms Quinlan has been told the maximum rent assistance she will get from the EHB is £380 a month, but "I haven't seen a place below £450".
The issue is complicated by the fact that she lived in local authority accommodation in Cork, which has damaged her chances of housing from Dublin Corporation. "I lived in a small village all on my own with two small children," she said. "I found that very hard. I stuck that flat in Cork for five years." She goes to Focus Ireland daily to ring landlords, but so far without success. "One place yesterday said they would take me, but it's £200 a week."
Ms McAuley said many of the people affected were living in bed-and-breakfast accommodation or in hostels. "Some are quite crowded. They come in because they are so frustrated with the B & Bs and hostels they are in."
The maximum rent allowance which an EHB community welfare officer will pay can vary from area to area, she said. A system based on needs rather than on guidelines would offer families a better chance of getting accommodation.
Meanwhile, the difficulties facing Ms Quinlan in finding suitable accommodation are getting her down. "It's an awful worry. I really don't know what we are going to do."