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PRIVACY, NOT BEING able to have any visitors, and feelings of shame and embarrassment, are among some of the complaints raised by homeless children living in family hubs, according to a new report.
The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) will later today launch its report, No Place Like Home, detailing the views of 80 children living in family hubs in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
Latest homeless emergency accommodation figures show that there are now 3,784 homeless children living in emergency accommodation in the State.
During a consultation process, the OCO asked children and parents – representing children under five – living in the family hubs what they liked, what they found challenging and what they would change about the hubs.
While most children did not directly speak about their mental health during the consultation, they did express feelings of sadness, confusion and anger.
“Some days I didn’t even want to wake up because I didn’t want to face this day… I am tired in school. Some days I would just sit there and not even smile,” Rachel (10) said.
For some parents who were interviewed said the experience of living in a family hub was completely negative. One mother told the OCO that the only good aspect of living in the family hub is that her daughter might not remember the experience.
“It is not ideal for kids, but at least she is young, she’s still only a baby and won’t remember it,” Mother of Ciara, aged 2, said.
The OCO report states that the majority of families who live in family hubs have one room with an en-suite bathroom, while bigger families have two such rooms.
Many parents raised concerns about how much space their children had to learn to crawl and walk and reported that their children felt confined.
We are all in one room it has a double bed and two cots. It is hard to keep the boys from playing in the bathroom. Taj opened a packet of soap pods and got a chemical burn. (Mother of Taj, aged 2 and Kareem, aged 1)
Due to the fact that so many people are living in close quarters, many children have been sick frequently.
According to the OCO, parents in some hubs complained that staff had not informed them of outbreaks of infections, while only a few hubs clearly displayed such notices.
I was informed there was three other cases in the hotel/hub, and I said to them, ‘You didn’t tell anybody. There was no notice put up in the lift to let people know anything was going on…’ I informed them the Saturday saying ‘I think she’s hand, foot and mouth’. I informed them on the Sunday I came back [from hospital]. Again, on the Monday I informed another – another staff – member of staff. The notice wasn’t put up until the Wednesday. (Mother of Megan, aged 17 months)
A number of the children aged 5 to 12 expressed their overall dislike of the Hub and their desire to leave as soon as possible, with many attempting to run away.
Hannah (8) told the OCO that the hub was “like a children’s jail”. She told them she was extremely worried that her younger brother Niall (5), who had tried to run away from the Hub on several occasions would try do so again.
The five-year-old had even threatened to throw himself out of a bedroom window, the report notes.
Children were also frustrated with the lack of space for them to play or do their homework. Some children described how they adapted to a lack of space and privacy that arises from their entire family living in one room.
“Well, sometimes I have to read in the toilet if my sister wants to go to sleep. I love reading, my favourite book is Harry Potter,” Lena (9) said.
Many reported that excessive noise in the hub is often linked with tensions within and between families living in there.
“The children told us that they had witnessed arguments and, on occasion, physical fights between adults,” the report states.
Chloe (7) told the OCO that one of her biggest sources of unhappiness in the hub was noise caused by fighting. She explained that she and her mum tried to make it into a game, trying to guess what the “screaming” might be about.
The noise keeps me awake, I feel tired when I go to school. I feel like my eyes feel like they are about to go to sleep.
While there are no external visitors allowed in any of the hubs, most of them involved in the consultation did not allow children who lived in their hub to visit each other’s rooms.
“Once I asked someone who lives here to my room, my Mum agreed with it, her Mum agreed, she agreed and then someone knocked on the door and said ‘she can’t go there’. I felt sad ‘cos even if you are best friends you can only meet them in the meeting room,” Lena (9).
In response to incidents of children fighting with each other, some hubs made the decision to restrict children from playing in the hallways outside of their rooms and re-enforced the policy that children could not be unsupervised. Children told the OCO that as a result, their parents had stopped allowing them to play with other children in the hub.
The rules are very strict. The worst is that you are not allowed to have friends in your room. They just expect you to sit on your own. And not being allowed to be anywhere without your mam, you’re not even allowed to sit in the room for 10 minutes by yourself. I know it has safety issues but nothing is going to happen… If we break the rules we will get kicked out. It’s like a prison… it’s just horrible. (Rebecca, 10)
‘It’s better than a hotel or street’
For children aged 5 to 12 years, the only good thing they identified about living in the family hub was making friends. In hubs where there was shared space, the OCO noted that children seemed to benefit from interacting with each other and making friends.
However, several young children involved in the consultation could not identify anything positive about the hubs. In a number of cases, when asked what was good about living in the hub, children answered with “nothing”.
The OCO said that in some cases, in an attempt to identify positives children uncovered further negative feelings. For example, one child told them about how good the security was in the hub, but how this also put restrictions on her.
Em, there is really top-notch security here, sometimes the doors have a lock on them… and it makes me feel trapped. (Lena, aged 9)
Depending on where the children had lived previously, the OCO found that their views varied. For those who lived had been living in overcrowded housing with extended family, the hub was viewed as comparatively better in some ways, with some having their own bed for the first time.
This place is good, I like it here. There are bad things about here as well. I do have a bed to sleep in at night time, some people don’t. (Anna, aged 16)
For parents who took part on behalf of the children under five, the positive aspects of the family hubs that they identified were the safety and stability there.
The mother of Myles, aged 13 months, said that the hub “provides a safety net with security here all the time… having a roof over our heads and an opportunity to have somewhere to call home for the time being and it provides a bit of stability”.
Another mother summarised the positive aspects of the family hub for her youngest son as follows:
It’s better than a hotel or street or another person’s house. The hub is clean, we are not hungry or dirty. (Mother of Ali, aged 17 months)
Two of the eight hubs visited by OCO had a child-support worker on site. A number of parents also mentioned other positive aspects of the family hubs including cleanliness and opportunities for young children to socialise and interact with other children.
The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon said that based on the responses to the No Place Like Home report he believes the time has come to progress the conversation on including an express right to housing in the Constitution.
“We can no longer allow our children to live with the overwhelming feelings of shame, guilt and anger because they are homeless, through no fault of their own,” Muldoon said.
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Why cant the government move people out of these hubs in major city’s like dublin where the price of housing is way over the top go places like leitrim roscommon and so on where the population is decreasing and school’s closing. The more population that goes into these areas the more jobs and opportunity that will arise in the future.
@Martin Sinnott: Because leitrim and roscommon isn’t close to Mammy and Daddy’s house and the majority of people on the social housing list want a house in the area they grew up in. They wouldn’t accept a house in the country. House’s in the country are for those who work and pay a mortgage and taxes. Even though my comment is true it’ll get a lot of hate because speaking the truth offends people.
@Roy Dowling: your comment is only true according to you own narrow minded views.
I’m aware of several families who would jump at the opportunity to move anywhere a home was available to them. And no parent wants their children living is such places even if it means being miles away from parents,grandparents.
Many of those people in hubs are being forced to live no better than animal.
So please ensure you’re better informed when make a comment..but then ignorance is bliss I believe
@Celia Murphy: I personally know of 2 families who purposely declared themselves homeless in order to get housed quicker. And now both are living in a nice council house. one of the families the mother and father “broke up” leaving the mother and child homeless, father wanting nothing to do with the child. the mother and child spent weeks in different hotel rooms and twice sleeping on my sofa when they couldn’t get a room in a hotel. Eventually they spent a week in a homeless hub and are now housed in a 2 bed place in Dún Laoghaire. Best news off all the father and mother realised they actually still loved each other and got back together less than a week after she was housed.
@Martin Sinnott: The housing is offered but not being taken.
@Roy Dowling: That tactic of the woman saying she has been abandoned in order to jump the queue then moving the man in as soon as she gets a house is making it difficult for real single fathers as we are seen as useless men who are shurking their responsibility. But they don’t care as long as they get their free gaff
@Celia Murphy: I have been working my backside off since finishing University and my family and I can only afford to live 40 kilometers away from my parents. How do you justify someone living off the government can live for free wherever they like Celia?
@Celia Murphy: “Many of those people in hubs are being forced to live no better than animal.”
Who is forcing them?
@Michael Reilly: Michael..some of these families lost their homes for various reason..some unscrupulous I know..however I’m speaking of those who worked hard, took out a mortgage and paid promptly for years then due to redundancy or illness couldn’t afford to continue payment despite endless communication to alleviate the pressure and remain in their homes.
How do I know? Because I’m one of them.
@The ‘Notorious’ Fanboy: I hear your anger and frustration but not everybody is unscrupulous..please read the comment I just made to another reader. I hope it brings some clarity
@Celia Murphy: Thanks for responding. Working class are always getting screwed over by free loaders and the elite.
@Celia Murphy: I think the ‘redundancy or illness’ segment you speak of counts for the minority of cases (sorry to hear you’re one of them, hope things look up for you).
I have lived in the squalor of Dublin (D1 and D15) and without a doubt in my experience I can say the majority of families living free off the government are free-loaders with no intention of making an honest working living.
The vetting process is diabolical in Ireland and makes it so much more difficult for those in actual need.
@Martin Sinnott: Most, if not all, families living in these hubs have been offered houses. They have turned them down for a variety of reasons. I’d love if a journalist in Ireland had the bottle to request these offers under FOI and ran with it.
I want to live for free with my family in Dublin, Cork or Limerick. I won’t accept any sort of accommodation provided in ANY other country. Irish Government make this possible!
Cuckoo politician donoghue says in the indo that cuckoo funds are easing the housing crisis!
@Adrian: I’m still at a loss as to wtf a cuckoo fund is…….
@Nigel Mcatamney: an organisation that buys up a block of apartments to rent, thereby the ordinary member of the public don’t get to buy individually. Apparently Cuckoos do something bird like that’s similar to kicking fledgling birds out of their nest or something
@Shelly O’Shea: Thats what they say, the facts show that the banks are a lot more likely to evict someone that a buyer of distressed loans.
This will be in the long term psychologically damaging to the child. Has to be a better way even shipping container homes like other countries would be better. Also it’s so important to have space to play. Surely we can come up with a better housing scheme where people pay what they can afford to pay for a home
@Lynn: Nothing??
@Lynn: Shipping container homes were estimated to cost over 100K so not really a solution. Housing scheme that allows people to pay what they can is called social housing, but in their wisdom our government has pulled away from that put the burden on priviate landlords then taxed them to death and blame them for all the issues.
First comments look like possible Fine Gael bots.
Yesterday we had the story of mother and baby homes and today we see this is a further extension of same, incarceration of children in State Built structures, Hubs!
A friend’s young family are living in the ex Magdalene laundry hub in drumcondra,said that some of the staff treat them as if they were prison wardens.
Peter McVarry trust on RTE (SOR) defending these “hibs” These charities are fast becoming part of the problem.
@Jim O’Sullivan: Homelessness is an industry.
Petition on Family Home status:-
https://www.change.org/p/housing-crisis-referendum-on-family-homes
-to upgrade the defective Irish Constitution to German standard where Family Homes given greater status than mere “property” …. essential for a sane decent society for your kids and grandkids. Hubs, though well intentioned, are modern “Work Houses” a damning indictment of modern Irish society and its political class.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: So basically carte blanche to not pay rent, not control feral brats etc and there is nothing that can be done?? Good plan!!
@Neuville-Kepler62F: But you get german standard family home status right after you repay money you borrow to buy or build it.
@Weldoninhio: No civilised society should be forced “by design” to pay Rack Rents. There is a salary cap in place to control the brats who destroyed our economy! Read the Petition again.
Shame on the irish government so up there own arses they cant see the crisis with homeless
have your say