KELLY-ANNE BYRNE found herself living in a homeless hostel with her newborn son when she was just a teenager.
She had been in foster care since she was four months old, but her foster home refused to let her stay when she became pregnant at 16.
She wasn’t old enough to receive social welfare accommodation, and with no other foster homes available, she lived in the hostel with her son for two years.
“That was so scary,” she told The Journal.
Not having any family support, not having anyone, just pretty much left alone. Not knowing who was going to come into my bedroom at night, having to share a hostel room with a number of beds and my newborn son, having to walk the streets during the day. My son had severe chronic asthma so he was in and out of hospital. He nearly died on me. He was in ICU three times. Other than walking the streets, I was in hospital with him.
Ten years later, Byrne was living in rental accommodation with her two sons, twin girls and their father.
Within a few months, one of her twins had passed away from cot death and she had lost her home.
When her relationship broke up, and after putting her things into storage and going “with just the clothes on our backs” to the council, she found herself staying in another homeless hostel with her children.
“We were literally in a bedroom. It was three beds. There was no bed for my daughter, she had to sleep in her buggy. There was no cot or anything, and because I’d lost my twin daughter, there was no way I was going to put her in the single bed beside me.”
Byrne remembered feeling “terrified” and “just completely in turmoil”.
“I just remember being in there, thinking: ‘Oh my God, this is our life’. Feeling like I had no control over our lives whatsoever and just lost, and didn’t know what was going to happen next,” she said.
Following a meeting with a Focus Ireland support worker, Byrne and her children were then moved to a women’s refuge and afterwards, supported housing for domestic violence, where they received all the care and assistance they needed.
In 2016, after five years had passed, the now family of six moved into their forever home.
“We were over the moon. We had wished for this for so many years. We’d prayed and dreamed of what it would be like, and then we got the offer, so we were absolutely over the moon,” Byrne said.
She still receives support from Focus Ireland, and also works with them as an ambassador.
“I think that’s been the biggest positive outcome for me in the sense of being able to turn all my pain into something beneficial and to show people who are facing similar or feeling so alone that they’re not alone, that there are supports out there and they don’t have to face this alone. I can do it, they can do it.”
Homelessness exhibition
Focus Ireland today launched a new art exhibition, A Home for Christmas, on Wicklow Street in Dublin.
Aimed at highlighting families living in homelessness, the exhibition features children’s artwork which depicts what a home would mean to them this Christmas.
The charity said that the exhibition is reminder that “for many children, a home is something they can only dream about.”
In September 2021, 8,475 people were recorded as experiencing homelessness or living in emergency accommodation. Over 2,300 of those were children.
The charity estimates that around 1,082 families – including over 2,100 children – will spend Christmas in emergency accommodation this year.
“Our goal is that everyone, particularly children, can have a place they can truly call home,” service manager at Focus Ireland John O’Haire said.
“Whilst we helped 880 families to secure a home last year in partnership with the government, there is still a huge demand for our services as the harsh realities and impact of Covid-19 are continuing to affect families all over Ireland.”
Byrne said the exhibition gives a voice to children who are currently living in emergency accommodation.
“The pictures are just so real. Not every child is able to express verbally how they’re feeling, and I think art is a great form of expressing the trauma and the pain and the instability that they’re going through,” she said.
I think the campaign is in the best interest of children, in terms of letting the Government see how important it is for children to have the stability and a home and a roof over their heads, not just for Christmas, but forever.
She added that she hopes the children’s voices are listened to by the Government and that more social and affordable housing will be built going forward.
“I hope the Government sees how traumatic it is to be homeless and not have the foundation of stability in their lives of a home and a safe place, a roof over their heads. The basic rights that everybody deserves to have, there’s people out there that don’t have them, and they need them. They need them, especially in this day and age.”
Focus Ireland’s A Home for Christmas exhibition will run from now until 14 December at 32 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2. You can make a donation here.
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