On Wednesday morning Newstalk Breakfast aired a report from a Dublin hotel, where a young Dublin family are now living.
The reaction to the story story of Gillian and her two children, living from a hotel room since June of this year, has been massive, with tens of thousands of you responding. Gillian, the mother in the video has said “The reaction has been amazing, it brought me to tears. It’s this kind of thing that restores your faith in humanity.”
Gillian says she hopes the publicity of her story will help others in similar situation. “It’s brilliant that it brings this issue into the light,” she said “because there are people who are afraid to speak up because they worry about their kids and things like that.”
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“I don’t know if this will help me personally but it might help someone get out of their situation and that’s something at least.
Gillian has sent the video the the Taoiseach’s office but has yet to hear a response.
“I sent the video to Enda Kenny’s office asking him to watch it but I haven’t received any reply from them, one way or the other. It’s less than two minutes long so he can hardly claim he doesn't have time," she says.
While the response has been positive, Alice Leahy Director of TRUST, says there remains a danger that people cannot fully grasp the impact of homelessness just by watching a video report such as this.
"What worries me is what you can’t capture on a video and that’s the psychological impact that this is having on her whole family. There is no freedom living in such a small little hotel room," she said.
"There is nowhere for her children to go and nowhere for them to play. That’s the type of thing that will leave an indelible mark."
Original report published November 26
On Wednesday, the Government is to announce its new social housing strategy. The announcement came as many families prepare for Christmas in emergency accommodation.
Right now, almost 700 children are homeless in Dublin. Most are living in emergency accommodation with their families, where several people are often squeezed into single rooms of no more than a few square meters.
Gillian and her children are just such a family. Her daughter Sophie is nine months, her son Dylan is six years old. Since June of this year, they have been sharing a small room on the fifth floor of a hotel on the side of one of the State's busiest roads.
'New homeless'
They are some of Ireland's 'new homeless'. Gillian has no problems with alcohol or drugs. She is simply unable to afford the rent that is currently being demanded in Dublin.
New plans for social housing will help people like Gillian in two, three or four years' time but it won't make any difference to them today. Nor will it make any difference to the estimated 45 families who will be made homeless between now and Christmas.
According to Gillian, the immediate need is for something to be done about the gap between rent allowance and the cost of rent in Dublin. Unless that happens, hundreds more families will have been made homeless before the first new social housing scheme is ever completed.
Gillian believes the Government lacks the political will to tackle the emergency accommodation crisis.
In the video below, she gave Newstalk a tour of the fifth-floor hotel room where she has been forced to live with her kids:
