No double beds allowed for unmarried elderly

Single and widowed residents of a €17 million State-funded senior citizens’ complex have been refused permission for double beds by the Catholic housing agency that owns and runs the apartments.

Fr Scully House, a recently built complex of 99 apartments near Mountjoy Square, was at the centre of a seven-month rent dispute between the Catholic Housing Aid Society (CHAS) and Dublin City Council.

The society wanted to charge an average monthly rent of €580 but last February agreed to accept the €400 proposed by the council.

Most of the 90 one-bed and nine two-bed apartments, all of which are fully furnished, have now been occupied. The one-bed apartments have single beds and residents have been told they may not swap them for doubles.

“The residents are not asking CHAS to supply them with double beds, they are happy to provide their own, but they have been told they are not allowed, and those who have already bought them have been told to remove them,” residents’ association chairman Anthony Egan said.

Refused

A small number of residents, about five, had been allowed to keep their double beds, but most have been refused, including one resident who had a doctor’s letter confirming his need for a double bed, Mr Egan said.

A spokesman for the society said tenants signed contracts to live in furnished apartments. “The contract says the apartment is fully furnished and it was made very clear to everyone that they are signing a contract based on that.”

It was “not a hard and fast rule” and some tenants had been permitted double beds, “mostly for orthopaedic reasons”, he said.

However, the society had a “serious storage problem” and was not in a position to store unwanted beds. There were also “certain standards” it was trying to maintain in the apartments, he said.

The apartments are significantly larger than most in the city having been built to the council’s most recent development plan standards, which require one-bed units to be more than 20 per cent bigger than the national standard.

Mr Egan said most residents were happy to keep the single bed for occasional guests as there was “plenty of room” for both.

“Neither the 45-page tenants’ handbook or the 19-page tenancy agreement make any mention of any strictures or restrictions as to how we sleep or who we sleep with,” he said.