Protest by mother who left flat where urine dripped down wall
A mother who was living with her child in a flat where human excrement dripped through her ceiling has begun a housing protest outside Cork City Hall.
Alina Marinescu, 36, had been living in a flat where faeces and urine dripped down the walls and seeped through the ceiling from the flat above.
She was living in the flat in Cork City while heavily pregnant with twins and her young son, now 8, having to use a bowl or the garden as a toilet, terrified for their safety but with nowhere else to go.
When the ceiling collapsed in March, she left and has been in emergency accommodation since.
As a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) tenant at the time, her local authority is legally obliged to ensure rental properties meet minimum standards.
A drunken man allegedly assaulted a neighbour of hers in the hotel where she is staying and abused a staff member.
Gardaí are investigating a trespassing incident that occurred there last night after they received a report of an intoxicated male at the premises, who had left on arrival of gardaí.
No arrests have been made at this time and investigations are ongoing.
Ms Marinescu said that emergency accommodation is unsafe and unsuitable for her babies, who were born in April, and her son, aged 8.
“I don’t understand the system here," she said. "I just want to find somewhere to rent that is safe for my family, where we can keep our dog.
She is now begging Cork City Council to find her a home.
Although she was offered an apartment by Cork City Council, it was close to her old apartment, which she is afraid to return to.
She has reported a neighbour there to gardaí for what she says is highly threatening, aggressive, and intimidating behaviour.
She told Cork City Council of her concerns but was told that rejecting a property would mean deferring her social housing application.
Ms Marinescu appealed but her appeal was rejected.
A letter from Cork City Council’s Housing Directorate states that Ms Marinescu applied for a property advertised on Choice Based Letting, a website where people can bid on local authority housing, in April.
“As you placed a bid on this property and subsequently refused the offer, this refusal is deemed a refusal of a reasonable offer," the letter said.
The terms and conditions of the council’s Choice Based Letting scheme say that “where a household refuses a reasonable offer by Cork City Council of the allocation of a bid dwelling under Choice Based Letting, that household shall not, for the period of one year commencing on the date of such refusal, be entitled to make a further application under Choice Based Letting.”
However, Ms Marinescu is adamant that she never applied for that apartment because it did not meet her family's needs.
Letters had been sent in support of the Marinescus' housing need from agencies including Cork University Maternity Hospital, which decried the “appalling” private rental conditions the family had been living in.
Leaving hospital with newborn twins and a son to care for alone in one hotel room would be difficult, with no easy access to cooking or washing facilities, the letters warned.
“Additionally, more space is required to promote the healthy growth and development of her twin babies and her seven-year-old son," one letter said.