Tipperary County Council rejects claims made by family asked to leave Emergency Accommodation

Tipperary County Council Photo © Tipp FM

Tipperary County Council has rejected claims made by a local family about why they’ve been asked to leave their Emergency Accommodation.

Graham King told Tipp FM the council gave them a room in a Cashel hostel, stating it was not short term, but, have since told them otherwise, and they must vacate without providing any alternative.

The Council’s Housing Department has since issued a statement to Tipp FM detailing their reasons for asking the family to leave next week.

It is posted below :

The King family were residents of a property operated by an Authorised Housing Body (AHB) from 2007 to 2021. They vacated the property voluntarily in 2021 and moved in with other family members where they resided until September 2022.

The King family presented to the Council on the 8/9/22 where they were assessed for social housing supports. Unfortunately, their level of income was far in excess of the income limits set by the Department for County Tipperary and the Council had no choice except to refuse their application for social housing supports.  However, following a review of the unique and challenging circumstances, (the family were living in a tent at that point and there were medical challenges), Tipperary County Council provided the family with short-term emergency accommodation on the 20th October. It was made clear that this support was being provided on the basis that:

  1. The family would actively and genuinely engage with the Council’s Hap Place finder service on a weekly basis to track progress on their search for alternative accommodation and identify opportunities
  2. The HAP Placefinder would also source appropriate properties for the family to view
  3. That in the event that the family refused to actively and genuinely engage in the search for properties and/or refuse to take up appropriate private rented options that the supports were to be withdrawn

The Senior Social Worker for the Council, the Housing Assessment Officer, and the Homeless Prevention Officer have all had extensive engagement with the family during this period. The HAP Placefinder has been working with the family extensively since they were accommodated in the emergency accommodation. The family had indicated that they were willing to re-locate anywhere in the country to secure accommodation having acknowledged the limited supply of accommodation in Nenagh in their previous searches.

The family have viewed two properties in the past fortnight.

– a three bed property close to where the family are working.

– a property outside the county offered by a person who contacted them via social media.

To our disappointment they have refused to consider either property and have not supplied a reasonable justification for doing so.

Similarly, in the past 7 days, the family were notified of an opportunity to view a three-bed property on the Tipperary/Offaly border. Tipperary County Council had contacted the landlord in this instance and they had expressed an interest in meeting with the family. The family were again unwilling to view this property and again did not supply a reasonable justification for this refusal.

The King family have been supported by the council in short-term emergency for the past three weeks on an intensive basis. Their level of engagement with the process and their rationale for not accepting the private rented accommodation on offer has been disappointing and frustrating.

Given the demand on emergency services and on very limited resources (personnel and financial), the Council made the decision to notify the family that we would be ceasing their emergency accommodation from the 15th November; however, the family were also informed that should they source accommodation during this time, the Council would be willing to support them until this accommodation is ready.

The family can continue to remain in the B&B but will have to pay for the accommodation from their own resources. The alternative is that they consider returning to their extended families or some other family friend for a temporary period until they can access private rented accommodation. Whilst this is certainly not ideal, it is preferable to their current plan of re-locating to their tent.

Tipperary County Council works on an inter-agency basis with other state bodies and we have informed the relevant authorities of our concerns in relation to Mr King’s stated plans for the family to return living in a tent in the middle of winter.