CRISIS POINT: Stark Mayo family choices as eviction fears surge

Families are facing homelessness as evictions surge across Mayo, The Connaught Telegraph can reveal.

Enter a homeless shelter in Charlestown, spend every cent they earn on rent, or book a one-way ticket abroad.

Those, according to families who contacted this newspaper, are the stark choices now confronting a growing number of working households across Mayo as eviction notices mount ahead of the introduction of new rental legislation in March.

Right across all four corners of Mayo, parents in full-time employment, many with young children and some with additional needs, say they are being pushed to the brink in what one mother described as a “disgusting” housing crisis that shows no sign of easing, despite repeated political assurances.

Klaudia Barrett, a Westport mother of three, is among those facing homelessness.

After six years in the same rented home, her landlord wants the family to leave by mid-April.

Both she and her partner work full-time and currently pay close to €300 a week for what she describes as sub-standard accommodation.

“Where do we go?” she asked.

“There are only two homes available to rent in Westport. The rents being advertised are over €600 a week. It would take nearly both of our wages just to pay the rent.”

Klaudia said the family is not looking for handouts.

“We don’t have a medical card. We can’t access social housing. We work to survive, we have no savings and we can’t get a mortgage.

"Many people in this country who have nothing to show for their work and now face being on the street.”

While she has no issue with her landlord seeking the property back, she says the reality for her family is bleak.

“There are empty houses all over Westport and right across Mayo. I feel like banging on the doors. We’ll pay. We don’t want anything for free.”

A family of five in north Mayo, who asked to remain anonymous, told how they were initially given 28 days’ notice to leave their rental home.

After contacting Threshold, they learned the notice was not legally valid and that they had six months to secure alternative accommodation, bringing them to June.

When the family contacted Mayo County Council, they were advised to apply for HAP but were told they would still need to source a property themselves.

“Which is impossible,” the mother said.

At the time of going to press, there were no long-term rental properties advertised on Daft.ie in Ballina town.

When she asked what would happen if no accommodation was found, she was told the family would be offered one room for five people in a homeless hub in Charlestown.

“We’d have to bring the kids to school from there,” she said.

“We’re now looking at leaving the country and moving to Dubai.”

Another Ballina mother, who has been on the council housing list for 17 years, said her lease ends on March 20.

Despite searching constantly online and through auctioneers, she says there is simply nothing available.

“I have been informed they have no accommodation for myself and my children,” she stated.

“I was told that myself and my children will have to present as homeless on the day the tenancy ends and be put in a shelter in Charlestown.”

She has three children, one with special needs, all of whom attend services in Ballina, and she does not drive.

“It would be a two-hour round trip - about 100km a day,” she said.

“There is a two-bed council house sitting empty less than a kilometre from me. I have been begging for it until suitable accommodation becomes available and have been told no.”

A single mother living in the Knock area said she received a termination notice after her landlord decided to sell another property and move back into her rented home.

“I’m over the wages required to get on the council list,” she said.

“I’m working full time, but I can’t apply for a mortgage because there are zero houses within what the banks say I can afford. All we want is our own place - not for free - just to be given a chance.”

In the Westport area, a tenant described how his landlord sought a 20 per cent rent increase last autumn, far in excess of what is permitted in a Rent Pressure Zone, and with just three weeks’ notice.

When he queried the increase, he received no response.

The following month, he was served with an eviction notice which he later learned was also not legally valid.

“It didn’t contain the required information, vaguely stated the reason for eviction and gave us only half the notice we were entitled to,” he said, adding that he only discovered this after contacting a homeless charity.

Fine Gael Councillor Peter Flynn, chair of Mayo County Council’s housing strategic policy committee, said the past two years have seen a constant stream of people in dire housing distress.

“Government made a mistake,” he said.

“We need to incentivise landlords to stay in the market by reducing the 50 per cent tax burden.

"We should also look at allowing properties to be rented as shells, without furniture or fittings, as happens in many other countries. That would remove a huge amount of the stress and cost for landlords.”

Councillor Flynn added that there has been a lot of scaremongering by the media and representatives on all sides that has made property owners react prematurely and opt to sell their rental accommodation.

Independent Councillor Harry Barrett said the crisis is being driven by soaring rents and an acute lack of supply, with fewer than 30 homes available to rent across the entire county.

“People are coming to me every week saying the same thing,” he said.

“They cannot find anywhere to live, and when they do, the rent being asked is completely beyond what an ordinary working household can afford.

"This is not a future problem - it is happening right now in towns and villages across Mayo.”

“The calls I’m getting are from families, young workers, single parents and older people who feel trapped.

"Some are afraid to challenge rent increases in case they lose their home. Others are being served eviction notices and know they will not find anything else locally.”

For Klaudia Barrett, now facing the risk of homelessness for the second time in eight years, the strain is taking its toll.

“I feel the pressure all of the time,” she said.

“We have worked all of our lives. We pay our taxes. And what do we have to show for it?”