'They are rendering us homeless'

RESIDENTS OF Priory Hall in Donaghmede stood around in groups on the street outside their apartments yesterday evening as news of the court decision to evacuate them came through.

“We only heard on the radio,” said Stephen Kelly, who rents an apartment in the complex. Mr Kelly, who was expecting his three children, aged one, two and 10 years to come to stay for the weekend, said that he would not be packing his bags: “Where would I go?” he asked.

Arriving home from work, Liam Boland said that he was angry at the “inhuman” treatment of residents. He said he was angry that the eviction could be “got through the courts in three days”, a feature that he maintained was “a violation of residents’ human rights”.

He asked why it was that “after five years it is suddenly urgent that we be got out. Somebody is covering their ass”.

“They are rendering us homeless, it is beyond sadness,” he said.

Mr Boland said he had a €200,000 mortgage on his property, which was costing €900 per month. He said he had been in touch with his lenders and they had said the mortgage must continue to be paid, even while he tried to find the money to rent elsewhere. He said that residents had been told their insurance cover was invalid.

“Dublin City Council housing staff told residents there would be no special priority for them,” and as a single man he did not hold out much chance of social housing.

Along the street a woman who was chatting to neighbours through a ground floor French window said she lived with her partner and their four-year-old son who was enrolled in a school nearby. They had no relatives willing or with enough room to take them in, she said.

Asked if she would be ready to move on Monday. she laughed and added: “They can carry me out. Where am I going to get a month’s rent in advance and a month’s deposit to find somewhere to live?”

Clive McCarthy, another renter who was on the street talking to neighbours, said that he had previously worked for the Priory Hall development company Coalport, elsewhere in the city. But he said he had been planning to leave in any case.

“My landlady rang today and said she would give me back a month’s rent. I was planning to get ahead of the curve.’’

Further along another group of residents had gathered, again at a ground-floor window, occasionally calling to neighbours on balconies asking if they had heard the news. Many had, although none said they were ready to move and some questioned why after five years the issue had become suddenly urgent.

A young woman who asked only to be identified as”Melissa”, who lives with her two-year-old son, said the courts and the city council “have no right to put us out until they have somewhere for us to go. They should put us up in a hotel,” she added.

A neighbour, Paul Flynn, said that while the decision to evacuate was “expected a bit” there was “no one answering phones in the corporation over the weekend. Who is going to tell us what we have to do? Will they just come around here on Monday and drag us out?” he asked.