The scandalous shame that is the current homelessness situation in Ireland continues to shock the country on a daily basis.
It has emerged today that a young family in Co. Meath were forced to take residence in an abandoned council house to escape squalid conditions in their emergency accommodation.
Tom Stokes, his partner Briget and their two children, Thomas, aged two, and baby Mya, became homeless at the end 2015 after their landlord raised the rent to unaffordable levels.
The council then placed them at a house in Navan, where they were forced to sleep in one room and share one kitchen with seven other families. However, the damp in their room began making baby Mya sick. The 15-month-old developed pneumonia and bronchitis as a result of the horrendous conditions, and the council were unable to transfer the family to a different location.
Thus, Mr. Stokes decided to take action himself, and moved the family into an abandoned council house nearby.
Alan Lawes of Direct Democracy Ireland, who has been assisting the, said:
“This family, like thousands of others in Ireland today, were abandoned by the state and its officials and had no other choice but to take the action they did in order to protect the health of their children and what I hope for now is that the council see sense and leave the family where they are now.”