A People Before Profit Councillor is one of about 100 residents facing eviction from their apartments in the Kilmainham area. The apartment block called Tathony House contains 35 apartments and all tenants were given Notices to Quit last Wednesday the 20th October. The owner is selling the building and is claiming exemption from the Tyrrellstown Amendment which was introduced to stop mass evictions.
Cllr Madeleine Johansson, who represents the North Clondalkin/Palmerstown area for People Before Profit, has been renting an apartment in the block with her husband since 2009 and is now facing becoming homeless in June next year. She is now organising the tenants to take a case to the RTB and to call on Dublin City Council to purchase the building.
Cllr Johansson said: “It’s a very surreal situation to be in, I’m used to helping others fighting eviction and now I have to fight for myself. “Me and my husband are the victims of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael’s failed housing policies. We were on the housing list for 6 years, then we changed jobs and got kicked off the list because our income was too high. Then my husband lost his job and we had to go back on the housing list. We can’t qualify for a mortgage and we can’t afford to pay the rents that are being charged at the moment in Dublin. I know so many others who are in the same situation as us, and it makes me so angry.
“In other European countries we would have been able to access public housing and paid affordable rent for good quality housing. “We are not going to give up without a fight. We believe that the block should be purchased by Dublin City Council or an Approved Housing Body, like what happened in Leeside in Cork, so that all tenants can stay here and not have to face homelessness come June next year. We have people from all walks of life living here, single mothers, families and even pensioners. Everyone deserves the right to a home and no one should be forced to leave.”
