A FAMILY-of-five claim they have been forced to live in a tent after the council put them in cockroach-infested emergency housing – which they say is worse than jail.
Kelly and Alan Fitzpatrick, alongside their three children, say they have been living in a tent they pitched on a green in Dublin.
The family say this was their last option in an eight-month-long housing saga – which they claim last saw them placed in an insect-infested hotel by the South Dublin County Council.
The Irish Mirror reported that the Fitzpatricks were put into emergency housing in a Dublin city centre hotel last Friday, but only spent four nights there.
The pair, and their children Kasey, 17, Jack, 10, and Bobby, six, say they refused to spend another night in the hotel due to the alleged deplorable conditions.
Kelly, 30, claims the rooms were infested with insects and cockroaches and says she even caught a skin infection.
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The 30-year-old went to her GP who wrote a letter stating that she “attended with skin rash from insect infestation from the emergency accommodation she was in”.
The GP reportedly told the South Dublin County Council: “I will appreciate it if you could facilitate suitable accommodation for her and her family."
On Wednesday, Alan, 37, claimed: “We are being forced to go back to the emergency accommodation – a so-called hotel – as the council said we will be taken off the housing list if we don’t.
“When we went into the hotel the room was worse than a prison cell.
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"Our boys ran out of it crying and refused to sleep there so they stayed with their grandparents for the weekend.
“We had to call an ambulance for Kasey because she got sick and is still in hospital.
“We showed the council the doctor’s letter and the recordings of the room and we were told we still have to go back to it or we are off the list.
"So we are left with no other option but to pitch a tent on the green to be near the kids’ schools, our family, friends and neighbours.”
Alleged videos of the single room show two bunk beds, a single bed and a broken TV.
The outside of the windows were covered in what seemed to be vomit from the room above.
Another alleged video of the room shows cockroaches scurrying around.
When we went into the hotel the room was worse than a prison cell.
The Irish Mirror reported that Kelly and Alan say they have spent the last eight months desperately trying to find a new home for their family.
They had spent the last 11 years living in a house in Clondalkin under the Housing Assistant Payment scheme.
But in January this year were told by the landlord they would have to vacate the property on August 26.
The couple say they had been on council’s housing list for the last 11-and-a-half years and despite frantically searching for a new house they couldn’t find anything.
It was this that led to them being moved into the emergency accommodation.
Today, the South Dublin County Council told The Sun: "The Council does not comment on individual cases.
"However, any complaints received, in relation to emergency and other accommodation provided to homeless households, are automatically referred to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive for investigation."
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