‘There’s nowhere’

CRISIS Giedre Dyglyte sits in her Ballina home in front of a picture of her two children. The family face homelessness when they are evicted in a month's time.

Ballina mother facing homelessness feels ‘totally abandoned’

Michael Gallagher

A Ballina mother is begging for help as the prospect of having nowhere to live becomes more real with every passing day.
“I’ve never begged for anything in my life, but I’m begging now. I’m pleading for help, pleading for something to stop me and my children having to live on the street.”
The words of Giedre Dyglyte sum up her increasingly desperate search for housing as the prospect of having nowhere to live becomes stark following the lifting of the no-fault eviction ban this Friday, March 31.
Giedre and her children, Nemerseta (13) and Kaih (9), will be evicted on May 1 after ten years spent living happily in the Greenhills Estate on the banks of the Moy. She holds no grudge against the landlord, who is selling the house and gave her nine months’ notice, but the 32-year-old mother says there is absolutely nowhere for her and her children to go.
“I’m looking night and day, but there’s nowhere,” she told The Mayo News.
“I’ve always worked. I always contributed to Irish society since I came to this country in 2009, and I’ve never missed a rent payment or a bill, but no matter what I do I cannot find a place for us to live in four weeks’ time.
“We’re not asking for something for nothing, we always pay our way, and I always manage to sort out problems, but I cannot see a way out of this.”

‘Desperate’
Ms Dyglyte has been employed in Heffernan’s Fine Foods in the town for the past seven years. She had previously worked in other catering jobs in the area. Her children are immersed in the local community, and she dreads the prospect of them being uprooted from the life they know so well.
“They live here in the heart of the town surrounded by their cousins and family. They play for Ballina Town and Kilmoremoy and go to school in Behy and St Mary’s. They’re not looking for anything special. They just want to live in their town where their lives are and always have been.
“I tell them everything will be okay, but when they’re not here I lock myself in my room in the dark and just cry. I try to keep the good side out all the time, but as the days tick by I’m becoming more and more desperate.
“I check websites on an hourly basis. I ring the council every few days. I ring auctioneers and letting agents, and I ring politicians, but there’s absolutely nothing for us and so many others. I feel totally abandoned and there are so many people like me.”

‘Human catastrophe’
Yesterday, Monday, there was just one property available to rent in Ballina, and a total of 14 across Mayo. The situation is bad now, but will get even worse according to Sinn Féin TD, Rose Conway-Walsh, who described the housing situation as an ‘impending human catastrophe’.
“The Government last week made a conscious decision to increase homelessness by voting to end the no-fault eviction ban. They did so while failing to put in place any mitigation measures to protect those renters who will be at risk of losing their homes from April.
“Thousands of people are set to lose their homes in the coming weeks,” she said, accusing the Government of failing to reduce the flow of adults and children into homelessness while the eviction ban was in place, and casting doubt on its future ability to do so once the bill is lifted and the demand for housing inevitably increases.
“Make no mistake, this crisis is certainly not the fault of the small landlord. The Government are trying – and will continue to try – to pit people against one another when the blame lies entirely with 12 years of inactivity by themselves.
“The result of all this means that people will be thrown out of their homes through no fault of their own.”

Clawing fear
Ms Dyglyte agrees. She says the clawing fear of being separated from her children is becoming more real with every passing day.
“If the worst comes to the worst, the children will have to go and live with the grandparents, who are already packed out. I’m very thankful for that, but I cannot bear the thought of it because how am I supposed to live without my children. In this day and age, how can it be allowed to happen. Is anybody going to help us at all?”
Mayo County Council told The Mayo News that emergency accommodation is extremely limited at present and the council is currently relying on external accommodation providers to help house people in need.