‘We're barely holding it together’

A disabled Cork woman facing imminent eviction from her home has described feeling an “impending sense of doom” as she and her partner fear becoming homeless.

Full-time student Gabi McCormack and her partner have been living in their rented accommodation in Cork city for over three years. In March, Ms McCormack’s partner was told she was to be made redundant. Within the same week they were told their landlord would be selling their home.

Though their landlord promptly applied for the Tenant in Situ scheme, Ms McCormack said the process has been extremely slow and difficult and has left them feeling like “sitting ducks” with their eviction date now less than two weeks away. They were also told other people applying for the scheme were in worse situations than them, delaying the process further.

Ms McCormack is now calling on Cork City Council to take “heartfelt action” and consider purchasing homes under the Tenant in Situ policy.

The scheme allows a local authority to buy rental properties from private landlords who are selling, so it can continue to rent these properties to the tenants who are living there.

“We’re just gutted, it’s like a sucker punch,” Ms McCormack told the Cork Independent.

“It’s just a circle of bureaucracy and waiting times. We’re barely holding it together.

“We moved into the house thinking we’d have it long-term. We were looking to stay here ten-ish years until we could buy our own home,” she said.

Ms McCormack, who is autistic and suffers with chronic depression and an autoimmune condition, said the stress of facing homelessness has left her in agony over the past few months.

“Despite me trying my best, I can’t just decide to not be disabled,” she said.

“It’s been awful. Both of us have just spiked in our anxiety.

“I’m in so much pain every single day physically just from the stress manifesting itself. It makes me less able to even do small things like maintain the house.

“Over the last few months my mental health has got so bad. Those intrusive thoughts are coming back,” added Ms McCormack.

Having been previously rejected multiple times for mortgages, Ms McCormack is now worried that no landlord will consider her and her partner.

“What landlord is going to even pick us up?” she said.

“We’ve been rejected for mortgages even when we were both working full-time because they say they don’t know that we’d be able to pay a €1,000 a month mortgage when we’re paying €1,500 for rent,” added Ms McCormack.

Looking ahead, she said she and her partner have “no idea” what they will do next and that their only option left is to pay their next month’s rent and “basically squat”.

Ms McCormack advises anyone facing eviction to visit threshold.ie where an eviction notice may need to be validated.

She also recommends visiting localauthorutyhomeloan.ie for people who have had multiple mortgage rejections.

More information can be found at citizensinformation.ie.