A Dublin mum is begging Dublin City Council to tell her when she will be housed as herself and her children are "living in a shanty".
Jodie Murphy is a working mum of two young girls currently renting a flat in the north inner city from a private landlord. She became homeless two years ago and was temporarily in emergency accommodation before qualifying for HAP.
Jodie told Dublin Live that since she moved into the flat "there has been nothing but problems". She said she was due to be housed by the council over the summer, but believes this didn't happen due to her housing file being lost.
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"Since I moved in, the cooker has always been on a wooden block. Over the past couple of weeks it has become infested in maggots," she said.
"My child suffers severely with asthma and the windows don't open. It's riddled with dampness and there's nowhere to dry clothes.
"It's like living in a shanty. There's no ventilation. We had a fire a few weeks ago from a live wire in an apartment below me and because we can't open the windows I couldn't let the smoke out, so I had to move out for a few days."
An inspection carried out on the flat by an Environmental Health Officer in June found a number of contraventions, including mould, a radiator coming off the wall and no fire blanket or emergency evacuation plan.
The mum-of-two said she is "desperate" to get somewhere safe to live for herself and her kids. She described instances where the family had to stay in their car for hours at a time as people hanging out at the door of her apartment block were engaging in drug-taking and anti-social behaviour.
Jodie said that the issues have not been fixed by the landlord since then and has contacted Dublin City Council numerous times requesting an update on when she will be housed. She said she cannot get any information on her case and believes her housing documentation containing personal information has been lost.
"All the kids want to do is be able to come home, have their dinner and be able to go and play," she said. A spokesman for Dublin City Council told Dublin Live they do not comment on individual cases.
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