News

Homeless mother-of-nine forced to live on a beach

Keeley Jones has been looking for a house to live in since November 2017.

The Cork woman and six of her children have nowhere to live, leading Ryan to set up a place for them to live on Youghal beach.

Ms Jones, having nowhere to stay, set up tents to sleep on last week along with travel cots and air mattresses.

While her 17-year-old, 16-year-old and 13-year-old have been staying with their friends, Ms Jones and her ten-year-old, eight-year-old, four-year-old, three-year-old, one-year-old and six-month-old baby have been living in tents.

Ms Jones and her family were living in a house for five years but recently the landlord decided to refurbish the house but even with the adequate notice period given, Ms Jones couldn't find another place to live.

The family then went on to stay in a hotel aided by the Homeless Unit but following a mix up in bookings last week, the family were left with no option but to set up accommodation for themselves.

Keely with two of her children

Speaking to BreakingNews, Ms Jones said the reason she needs to stay in Youghal is to be close to her doctor: "I try and keep a brave face on and then when I need to go to the doctor, if I feel I am under pressure then I go in and speak to the doctor.

She said the children are all in school locally also: "So we're having a lot of trouble getting local accommodation. Six of my children are in school locally, all of my family and friends. My whole life is in Youghal."

Ms Jones also mentioned that booking in with hotels was a difficult experience: "A couple of times we were turning up to hotels and there were mistakes with the booking.

"They have told me that they have adjoining rooms and when we got there 'Oh, sorry. We haven't actually got adjoining rooms. We will have to put you in this room and that room.'

"They can be on opposite sides of the hotel and I can't monitor my children from two sides of the hotel. Because of fire regulations, they can only put one travel cot into each room," she added.

If you want to listen to Ms Jones full story, click on the link below.