Homeless Protest In Waterford

@ City Council meeting, Monday 8th Sep @ 6.30pm

A protest has been called outside the waterford City Counil meeting on Monday next over the enforced homelessness of a couple by the council (see report below).

A couple have been forced to sleep rough outside the housing office of Waterford City Council due to the refusal of the council to provide suitable accommodation for them.

James and Mary-Ann O’Brien have been sleeping rough in the doorway of the housing office for more than a fortnight. The council have claimed that they are unable to find accommodation for the couple and have only offered single hostel spaces, splitting the couple up. Due to Mary-Anne’s pregnancy and ill health, she suffers from asthma and deep-vein thrombosis; they refused to be separated. The council failed to provide them with any alternative, forcing them to protest by sleeping rough outside the offices.

James, who is originally from Waterford, told the Socialist Worker: "We were in Clonmel, but couldn’t find any decent accommodation there. Clonmel council would only give us a room in a bed and breakfast one night at a time. They then claimed that there were no beds left in the whole city during the Fleadh Ceoil and gave us the bus fare for Waterford to get rid of us. We stayed for a night with my sister, but she has ten kids and we couldn’t stay there any longer".

"When we came to the housing office, they would only offer us separate accommodation in single hostels. We couldn’t be split up; my wife is pregnant, so they effectively said there was nothing more they could do. We had no money and nowhere to go so we had to sleep on the streets. We’re sleeping outside the housing office to try and shame them into doing something for us".

"We’ve been here for more than two weeks, but the head of housing, Fergus Galvin, hasn’t even bothered to speak to us. He must use a different entrance to get into the building. The staff have been ordered to fob us off, hoping that we would get fed up and go away somewhere else".

"We’re getting terrible harassment from the Gardai. They pass by every night shouting abuse at us, calling us fucking cunts and saying they’re going to get us. I tried to complain to the superintendent, but nothing happened. The St. Vincent de Paul office is only yards away from where we are sleeping, but when we went to them for help, they wouldn’t give us anything, not even blankets to keep warm. We had to buy blankets from their shop".

"There’s a hostel nearby with asylum seekers. We don’t know what we would have done without them. They’ve fed us and allowed us to use the facilities. A lot of people on the housing list blame refugees for the lack of housing, but that’s rubbish. There’s a lack of housing because the government won’t put the money into building them. The people passing have been terrific. We’ve collected 800 signatures on our petition. People on the housing list know what it is like dealing with a council who don’t care about anyone".

Local councillors have refused to meet with James and Mary-Ann, but that hasn’t stopped them attacking the couple through the local media. Both PD councillor, Ollie Cleary and Labour councillor Pat Hayes vilified James and Mary-Ann on local radio for ‘trying to jump the housing queue’.

James said in response: "It’s no surprise that a PD politician says that kind of stuff, but you’d expect more from a Labour Party member. If just goes to show that all these politicians are the same, they’re all interested in keeping the status quo".

Ollie Cleary, Pay Hayes and the 13 other Waterford councillors preside over a city with the worst housing record in the country. With approximately 1,500 people on the housing list in the city, Waterford has per capita the longest housing list in the state. Despite, this only 52 social houses were built in 2001, less than any other local authority, and only 560 houses are planned over the next five years, despite the city's expanding population and the exorbitant cost of private housing. Nationally, it is estimated by Focus Ireland that 50,000 families are homeless, a total of 140,000 men, women and children.

Members of the SWP and people on the housing list will join James and Mary-Ann at a protest outside the City Council meeting on Monday last, where the local councillors were confronted.

"They’re not interested", James said after. "They just want to get rid of us because we’re an embarrassment, but we’re not moving until we get somewhere to live. Having a roof over your head is the most basic thing anyone can expect from any society, but this council are trying to deny us this. With the support of other people who have to take on the council everyday, we’ll win this fight".