Tag Archives: 71

This morning.

On RTE’s Morning Ireland.

It had an item on older people losing their homes because they cannot afford to pay their rent.

Charity Alone has said the number of people, aged over 60 and on the social housing list, seeking help from Alone has grown nationally by 11.4% each year between 2013 and 2016.

In Dublin, it went up by 18% in 2015 and in 2016.

Journalist Cian McCormack spoke to a 71-year-old man called Frank who is likely to be homeless next week as the landlord of the house he has been renting for seven years wants him to leave.

Frank has been paying rent of €1,250 a month.

He gets a pension of €150 a week and does odd jobs to make up the difference to make his rent, his bills and to eat.

Frank told Mr McCormack:

“I’m running to stand still. I’m out there and like there’s some weeks, I don’t have work and sometimes the weather is against me.

“But, I mean look, for the last 10 years or so, 12 years, I’ve been lucky. There’s other people there worse than I am.

“At least I can get out of bed in the morning. But what I fear is the day I can’t get out, that I can’t make money…to pay.”

He added:

“I’ve been approved for HAP [Housing Assistance Payment] so HAP, I mean I’ve gone to a few places and looked in and the landlords just look at me and say, like, hang on, they don’t ask me personal questions because they just look at me, my age, and say, ‘what’s wrong?’, to themselves.

“There’s no feedback from them…they have my number. I just don’t get a phone call from them.”

“I have been looking around…seeing if I can get somewhere for maybe €600. They’re just laughing at me.”

Meanwhile…

Also this morning, in the Dail…

‘How could any landlord put a 71-year-old man out on the street’ (The Irish Times)