Traveller mother loses challenge over suspension from housing list

A Traveller has failed to secure High Court declarations that her one year suspension from Donegal County Council's housing list was unlawful and unreasonable.

Elizabeth Crumlish (66), a mother of two with a number of grandchildren, was suspended from the list after she refused two offers of accommodation in similar one-bedroomed houses.

She disputed the council’s claim those were “reasonable” offers of accommodation on grounds including she wanted halting site accommodation which could accommodate her children, who pursue a nomadic lifestyle, when they come to visit.

Ms Crumlish, who pursued a nomadic lifestyle for most of her life, was on the housing list from 2003.

From 2008, she lived in a private rented three-bedroom house in Letterkenny, with assistance of a Housing Assistance Payment, but got a notice of termination in 2018. She had indicated in her council housing application her preference was to be housed on a small family halting site in the county.

After the council said that was not realistic, she reluctantly applied for a house but asked that it not be on a housing estate.

The provision of a permanent halting site for her was included in the Donegal Traveller Accommodation Programme (TAP) 2009-2013. No progress was made in those years towards achieving that and the provision of a permanent halt for her was not included in the 2014-2018 TAP.

After she received notice of termination concerning the rented Letterkenny house in April 2018, the council made two offers of accommodation in similar one -bedroomed houses, the first in November 2018 and the second in January 2019.

After she refused both offers as unsuitable for reasons including the accomodaiton was not on a halting site, was too small and not in the Bridgend area as she had specified, she was suspended from the housing list with effect from January 2019. That suspension, made under provisions of the Housing Act, ended last January.

Because she was restored to the housing list some five days after the hearing of her challenge, the council argued her case should be dismissed as moot or pointless.

The judicial review, in which Ms Crumlish claimed her family rights and right to housing has not been vindicated, was initiated in May 2019 but the full hearing was delayed until last January for reasons including a family bereavement and a delayed court sitting.

Her counsel Siobhán Phelan argued the matter was not moot and asked the court to set out the principles to be applied when making offers of Traveller-specific or suitable accommodation.

In a judgment delivered electronically on Tuesday, Mr Justice Charles Meenan said the applicant's claims that the council's offers of housing were not "reasonable offers" was at the heart of the application. If the court set out the principles a housing authority should apply when making offers of traveller specific and/or suitable accommodation, the court would, in effect, be giving legal advice, he said.

This would be contrary to the principles concerning mootness as set out by the Supreme Court. Whether or not an offer of accommodation to a member of the Traveller community is, or is not, reasonable must depend on the facts of the particular case, he said. A decision in favour of the applicant, if she was still suspended from the list, would be of assistance to her but not necessarily to others as their circumstances may be different.

On that basis, he said the matter was moot and refused the reliefs sought.