Mother angry at lack of housing for her and two young children
An angry mother of two small children, one with severe autism, feels she is being discriminated against, fobbed off and pushed aside by the Westmeath County Council housing department. She decided to take her case to the newspapers and has vowed take it to the Ombudsman in a bid to get justice for her family.
Nicole Moore is a single parent of three-year-old Kason and two-year-old Cleo. She was working as a health care assistant before her children were born and was in rented accommodation until last February.
"I was on HAP (Housing Assistance Payment scheme), but I couldn’t afford it; I had to pay €77 a week to the council – which I could manage – but then another €400 every three weeks to the landlord. I had to give it up because I am a single mother and I just couldn’t afford it," Nicole said.
At present, she and her children are staying with her parents Anne Marie and Richard, in Grange, Mullingar, when they can, along with her sister and her baby.
Conditions are overcrowded, a situation that is made worse by the fact that her mother has severe COPD and is on oxygen "24/7".
"I am terrified of the kids around the oxygen tanks because if my mother’s oxygen is turned off at all she could die," Nicole said.
She pointed out that Kason needs 24-hour care as he is severely autistic. He was also born with a heart murmur and has bronchial asthma. He has no sense of danger and he hates change, she said. "My children are suffering and if this continues, they will suffer more."
Nicole feels she has been unfairly treated by the council housing department. "They looked us (Nicole and her mother) in the face, but didn’t want to hear anything we had to say. We were told that there were people in much worse situations and that we can’t be housed in emergency accommodation," she claimed.
Nicole is angry that others are being housed ahead of people like her.
"It really annoys me that the Irish are being pushed aside, especially women with children," she said.
"It’s pure discrimination against me. I never did anything; I’ve never been in trouble with the law or guilty of anti-social behaviour, and yet I am being forced to pull my children from Billy to Jack. I am very angry.
"I am heartbroken that I may have to leave my home country, my family, my support network, and my children may have to leave their family, their dad".
Nicole says she has been on to the council on a regular basis for the last two months and each time "I’m fobbed off".
"I am not asking for anything new, just a suitable house, warm, with running water, to make our home, and I am asking the council to provide us with support accommodation until I can be housed, but they just said ‘No!’."