‘Things are getting a lot worse for them’: the rising number of lone parents without a home

Celina bought her first house at the age of 22. At that point, she thought she was set for life. She was working, was in a relationship and had had her first child.

A few years ago, however, everything changed. The mother of two injured her leg and required surgery. As a result, she is now unable to work and is in receipt of disability allowance. Then, she had to sell her family home due to the breakdown of her marriage, but the money from the sale was used to pay off debts she’d accrued due to her unemployment.

She had nowhere to go. For a short time, the now 44-year-old and her two children lived with family. That didn’t last. While her eldest daughter stayed there, Celina and her now 11-year-old daughter, who has ADHD, were rendered homeless.

“The first place we were placed in, we were only there for 2½ weeks. It was noisy, dirty, there was a shooting outside. The room we were put in? You wouldn’t put a dog in there,” she said of accommodation she stayed in on Dublin’s Talbot Street.

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They were then relocated to another accommodation facility in north county Dublin that was more family-focused. This was a better place, she said, but the reality of being homeless was a constant stress on her shoulders.

“I felt like I was dirt, that nobody cared. I felt like because I was in homeless accommodation, I was scum and that people looked down on me. But nobody chooses to be in a position like that. I didn’t think I’d ever be in that position. It almost felt like a prison,” she said.

Celina is not the only lone parent who has experienced homelessness. In fact, they make up a significant proportion of the families accessing emergency accommodation, particularly since the lifting of the moratorium on evictions.

The latest figures, published on Friday, found there were a record 13,179 people accessing emergency accommodation in October, an increase of 352 on the previous month. Of those, there were 1,939 families and 3,991 dependent children.

Of the 207 families who have entered homeless accommodation since April, since the lifting of the eviction ban, 145 of those have been single-parent units, accounting for 70 per cent of the overall increase.

Typically, lone parents make up between 52 and 55 per cent of families in homeless accommodation, those working in the sector have said. In October, they accounted for 57 per cent of the total that month.

The publication of the latest tranche of figures come against a backdrop of concerns being raised about the way in which homeless figures are reported.

During the summer, there was a reporting error for those in emergency accommodation in Dublin, which resulted in an overstatement of the number of single adults in homelessness by 308. The overstatement was corrected in the August figures.

Furthermore, Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin has called for a widening of the criteria for the homelessness figures from just those living in emergency accommodation.

Ó Broin said the true number is much higher due to those sleeping rough, International Protection applicants who have been granted leave to remain but are unable to find alternative accommodation, and those in domestic violence refuges. Official figures also do not include those who are staying with family or couch surfing.

Regardless of how the numbers are counted, the Government and those working in the sector have recognised there are groups of people who are particularly at risk of homelessness. Lone parents are one of these groups.

Research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), published in 2021, found lone parents are among the most disadvantaged in Ireland’s housing system.

According to the think-tank, less than 25 per cent of lone parents reported home ownership, compared with 70 per cent of the total population. Lone parents had higher rates of affordability issues (19 per cent) when compared with the general population (5 per cent) and were particularly vulnerable to housing quality problems such as damp and lack of central heating (32 per cent compared with 22 per cent of total population).

Louise Bayliss, campaign coordinator with Focus Ireland, as well as spokeswoman for Spark, a group for single parents, said there are a number of risk factors that, when a family is separating, can result in a lone parent being likely to enter homelessness.

Ms Bayliss said women are often “forced to give up their job” due to prohibitive childcare costs. As a result of a mother’s lack of income, when a couple separates, the husband is often ordered to pay to cover the mortgage. However, Ms Bayliss said this affects an individual’s lone parent social welfare entitlements.

“They are effectively forced to choose: should I say just don’t pay the mortgage or should I lose out on my social welfare payments. They often say don’t pay the mortgage,” she said.

“That then results in arrears, or repossession, or surrender. It mostly leads to surrender because of the stress of everything. Often, surrendering means going on the housing list and being at risk of homelessness.”

The reliance on the private rental sector for social housing through the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) is another way in which lone parents are particularly at risk of homelessness, according to Sharon Fitzmaurice, a Dublin project lead for the Barnardos children’s charity.

“As we all know, there’s not enough HAP properties. Maybe they don’t have the top-up required for a house, which are higher priced. Obviously they’d have issues as a lone parent, they’re financially restricted a lot further. Most of them aren’t receiving a payment from the other parent,” she said.

“We know ourselves with the cost of living, things are tight for a lot of people. You throw in being a lone parent as well and things are getting a lot worse for them.”

Ms Fitzmaurice said in recent months there has been an increase in lone-parent families contacting Barnardos because they had a stable home but their landlord has announced their intention to sell, and they’re worried they won’t be able to find alternative accommodation before the eviction date.

“There’s an issue with childcare as well. If they can’t get a place for their child, then they can’t get back to education or work and end up trapped in homelessness,” she added.

A spokesman for the Department of Housing acknowledged the monthly data it publishes shows that of the families accessing emergency accommodation, the majority are single-parent families.

“We know that the reasons for people entering into emergency accommodation are very complex. Notice to quits, relationship breakdown/family circumstances and overcrowding are some of the main reasons given by individuals and families who enter into emergency accommodation and that is why we need to rapidly increase the supply of homes while also ensuring there is sufficient emergency capacity to assist immediately,” the spokesman said.

“Last year we delivered the highest amount of social homes in decades and record delivery of new-build social housing since the mid-1970s. Based on the projections and data available, we are confident that this year we will exceed last year’s figures. There is a strong pipeline of over 22,600 social homes either on site or at various stages of design and procurement. All of this will help provide more housing solutions, including for those who are at risk of homelessness.”

[ Number of homeless exceeds 13,000, figures show ]

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But being a lone parent has its own set of challenges, according to Celina. Adding an unstable living environment into the equation makes it even more difficult.

“I felt as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. I was so depressed. There were days I’d be putting on a happy face until I brought [her daughter] to school, and then I would cry my eyes out,” she said.

Now, however, she and her daughter recently moved into their own apartment due to being deemed eligible for the homeless HAP. She hopes that this will be a long-term solution.

“My daughter, she asked me for a house for Christmas. And so by December 21st last year, we had our apartment. She is doing so well in school, she loves it. She’s so much happier now. We lost all of our property, and loads of our clothes, but she’s so much happier now.”