At the end of 2019 NOVAS established it’s first Family Tenancy Sustainment service in Dublin. In collaboration with Fingal County Council, we housed 52 families during the Covid-19 pandemic. These families had been living in emergency accommodation, confined to one bedrooms in hotels & B&B’s. We are thrilled to supported them move to their own homes.

Here Kieran and Joan share their story:

We lived on a halting site for 20 years, we got married and had our children who were raised there. Overtime the halting site became very messy, dirt and rubbish started building up and new buildings started popping up everywhere around us. We tried to keep it tidy as much as we could but the dirt was attracting rats and the toilet facilities were absolutely horrific. We felt really low in ourselves, we were concerned for our children. We had to hand wash our children as we had no running water. The children would have to use buckets at night time when using the toilet. They had nowhere to play so we had to keep our kids indoors most of the time as it was not safe on the site. We feel the children could not be like children, they were losing out. There was no space in the caravan, we were living on top of each other. The caravan was very cold in the winter, electricity would constantly go off and the caravan floor was damp, with it falling through at one stage. Living in this environment was stressful. We were ashamed living in these conditions compared to now.

We were picked to move into our new home. Coming from a halting site and moving into a settle community was great. We felt very welcome as the NOVAS staff introduced us to one of our neighbours. They made us feel very welcome. As a family we have our own space and our relationships are improving. We became very excited as we started to picture decorating our new home before Christmas. The children were very excited and the kids started arguing about picking their rooms. The kids are settling in and they are doing much better in school and making friends in the community. We feel very safe and don’t feel locked in. We feel that we are part of a community and take great pride in our new home. We have a back garden so the kids can play.

We feel so grateful that we had the support moving and continue to receive support from our support worker, Pamela. Now we have a fresh start and a new life.

Before I moved to my new home I lived in emergency accommodation for eight months.   I was in the middle of receiving chemotherapy treatment and had two children to care for.

In the emergency accommodation I received a lot of support from the staff but there was a lot of shouting, and noise and I found it very hard to sleep.  The children were also affected by this and they were scared most of the time.  I felt I could not control my children and found this very stressful.

When I was receiving treatment the staff were very good to me by looking after my children but I felt it was not my own home and I had to constantly remind my children that we needed to wait to move into a new home.  The children were sad living there as the noise was really bad which caused them to be anxious.  I felt I was in a prison, as my friends could not come and see me.  I was always sitting in the house.  I felt very stressed.  The only faces I seen were the staff and the children.  I use to cry in the middle of the night and did not sleep for many nights.

I could not paint or decorate my home and the children became very upset as they wanted to hang pictures because they love drawing and colouring.  It’s a prison and I found it very hard to live here.  I felt I had no address, no platform.   I missed my friends and the company.

When I first saw my home I felt it was a miracle.  The first thing I asked was if I could hang the children’s pictures up on the wall!  The children are very happy as they could now express themselves and show off their art by hanging their pictures on the wall.  The children can play outside and move around freely.  The children are so happy and they went crazy when they first saw their new home and they love their bedrooms.  They play in the back garden and we plan to buy a trampoline to play on.  My little boy loves gardening and now we have our own garden.  We plan to grow seeds and plant flowers.    I received a donation from NOVAS.  It was a TV which the children are very grateful for.  They have not watched TV for eight months because I was saving to buy furniture for a possible new home.  I was very happy to learn that my new home will be fully furnished.  This took so much stress away from me and my family.

I have also support from my support worker, Susan, who can help me out with different things.  My friends can come over and visit now, I’m not alone here.  I just introduced myself to my neighbours and they are really nice.  I have already planned to have friends to come visit my new home.  Now I have an address, somewhere to call home, somewhere my children can be happy and can express themselves.  This is my home, this is my address.  I can now sleep in peace.