"We have to declare ourselves homeless" - retired Mayo couple
Having lived in Westport for the last 18 years, they will leave their daughter and two grandchildren behind as they face uncertainty over where they will live
Today, Geoff Smith and Jane Beddows must present themselves to Mayo County Council and formally declare themselves homeless. They have been on the council's housing list for sixteen years.
They have been in contact with the council since the start of the year. And yet, until this morning, there was nothing the council could — or would — do.
"You have to turn up on the day and declare yourselves homeless before we can do anything," Jane recounts being told. She pauses. "And I think that's disgusting. It really is, to treat people like that. It's not nice, and it's not a nice feeling that you've got to go and do that.
“It's going to be a big, big, big change for us and a big wrench because obviously we're leaving our daughter and two grandchildren behind as well. So it's going to be a very emotional time. Stressful,” Jane said.
Geoff, who has mild pulmonary fibrosis, and Jane, have been part of the fabric of Westport for the better part of two decades. Jane volunteers with Meals on Wheels.
Geoff is a member of Westport Men's Shed — and this week, his fellow members have rallied around the couple, arriving to help them pack. One of them will drive the pair to Castlebar and Charlestown, since they have no other way to get there.
Their roots here run deep in ways that don't always show up on a housing application form. All five of their grandchildren were born in Castlebar.
“We love Westport. We came here originally because our son moved over here with his girlfriend, because she had relations here, and they had three grandchildren and went back to Cornwall.
"So all five of our grandchildren have been born in Castlebar. We feel we've got strong connections with Westport. We've made loads of friends, and we just love the place,” Jane said.
Jane had been helping with her daughter's two young children — childminding while her daughter worked. That daughter is currently on maternity leave, but the arrangement was one the whole family depended on.
"When she goes back to work, she was sort of relying on me to help out with the child minding as well," Jane explains.
What happens to that arrangement now — with the couple potentially facing emergency accommodation in Castlebar, forty minutes away — is one of several questions that have no answer yet.
This week, they are packing it all away.
The house they are leaving was sold by their landlady, a decision the couple understand without bitterness.
"It doesn't feel like home anymore now," Jane reflects. "I understand the landlady. She's getting on a bit, and she just wants to sell it so she hasn't got the upkeep of it.
"But to be fair, I think we've been pretty good tenants, because we've done a lot of the jobs ourselves. There was no patio in the garden when we first came, and we laid that down. We've looked after it well for her."
Empty Council properties
The problem was never the landlady. The problem, as Geoff and Jane see it, is a system that has failed them at every turn.
For the past nine months, they have searched for somewhere else to rent. They emailed. They called. Often, they heard nothing back. The Rental Accommodation Scheme — a long-term housing support through which the local authority pays rent directly to landlords — entitles them to €1,400 per month.
But in Westport, most rental properties start at between €1,600 and €1,750 a month. The couple asked whether they could pay the difference themselves, topping up the scheme payment to meet the market rate.
They were told that was against the rules.
Geoff shakes his head at the number of empty properties in the area he knows the council has not offered them. He is, his wife says gently, exasperated.
Figures released to The Mayo News show that there are currently 95 vacant homes in Mayo County Council’s social housing stock. There are currently 473 households on the social housing list in the Westport-Belmullet municipal district alone.
As for what happens today — when they walk into the council office — they simply do not know. Emergency accommodation has not been guaranteed. They have packed what they think they will need, but the uncertainty is total.
"We don't even know if we'll be guaranteed a room," Jane says. "So we're just taking what we think we're going to need. I know it can be a shared bathroom, a shared kitchen."
Their worldly goods — a lifetime's accumulation in an eighteen-year home — will go into storage and wait.
Health issues
Geoff's health adds another layer of complexity. His pulmonary fibrosis requires regular check-ups at Castlebar Hospital, and his GP has written to the council about his condition.
Without a car, he is reliant on public transport for the journey between wherever he ends up living and the hospital — a route that will be considerably more complicated if the couple are placed outside Westport.
"We'll battle on," Jane says simply. "We're not the type of people to give up and just admit defeat. We've got each other at the end of the day, which is the main thing."
She looks toward the boxes, the bare surfaces, the stripped-back version of a home they spent eighteen years building.