In a truly heartbreaking and devastating story a Dublin mother of one has told her story of how she and her daughter could be living in emergency accommodation at a hotel for up to two years after being left homeless.
The woman named Erica Fleming who recently appeared on RTE Investigates: My Homeless Family programme has spoken of her distress during her and daughters experience and says she just wants to be able to provide a home “on a long-term basis” for her young daughter Emily aged 9. Ms Fleming was left homeless 7 months ago after she couldn’t afford to pay the rent anymore in the private accommodation which she lived in for several months before hand.
An emotional Erica who works 29 hours a week told RTE’s Radio One’s Ryan Tubridy: “At the start I was told it would be six to eight months, so you say to yourself, ‘Right I’ll struggle through it and then we’ll have our home’. “But I had a meeting before Christmas and I was told it could be up to 24 months.” “I really think if you want to know what a country is like you need to look at how they treat the most vulnerable in society [children]. “It’s not Emily’s fault I can’t afford the rent.” Although a struggling Erica said that she was extremely grateful to the hotel for putting them up, her ongoing struggles have taken a strain on her and her daughter. The single mother also said she was“embarrassed” to be currently homeless despite being currently employed.
Ms Fleming went onto say: “It was fine because at the start I needed to mind Emily and make sure she was OK, so you’d be snuggling her in the bed, trying to get her to go to sleep, telling her everything will be OK.” “Now is a problem, seven months later the child will not go to bed, will not go to sleep unless I’m in the bed with her.” An emotional Erica also said that her daughter is her “backbone” and gives her “the courage to go on”. Before adding: “When you become homeless, you do feel discriminated against, you do lose your voice, because you don’t matter, your opinion doesn’t matter. “You’re at the mercy of others so it’s really like you nearly don’t have a right to say how you feel.”