A mother and their children, who turned down six offers of houses by Clare County Council, have failed in their High Court bid to force the council to provide them with emergency accommodation.
Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger ruled that Clare County Council had lawfully discharged its statutory duties regarding the provision of emergency accommodation to the family, which includes seven children.
The judge said the family members are not entitled to require the council to offer them emergency accommodation from housing stock earmarked for social housing.
Martina Sherlock Mongans and her seven children, who are members of the Travelling community, sought to bring proceedings against Clare County Council, the Minister for Housing, the Attorney General and Ireland, claiming they should be allocated emergency accommodation in a three-bedroom unit that is part of the council’s social housing stock.
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The family now lives in a single room in a relative’s house.
“Undoubtedly, the situation in which they are currently living in one room in a relation’s house is appalling,” the judge said.
However, she found that the council acted “reasonably and lawfully” in making six separate offers of emergency accommodation to them. She, therefore, could not find the circumstances required to interfere in how the council exercised its discretion.
The family was evicted from a rented council house in Lahinch, Co Clare, in July 2024 and deemed homeless by the local authority. Hotel accommodation was arranged for several weeks from July 31st, 2024.
Setting out the background to the case, the judge said that, since August 2024, six different own-door accommodation options have been offered as emergency accommodation. She said each had been refused for various reasons, including concerns about safety, suitability and distance from the children’s schools.
The judge said it is surprising that this “entirely unsatisfactory arrangement prevails in preference to the six houses offered to the family”. She said this is perhaps indicative of how strongly the family feels about the conditions and location of each of the houses offered.
The judge said the family did not establish any cause of action or grounds for her to permit them to bring their case against the State parties.
The judge said the family wanted accommodation in Ennistymon or Lahinch, largely because of one of their children’s educational needs.
The judge said she was satisfied Clare County Council assessed the particular needs of the family in a manner that was reasonable, rational and lawful when offering them six of the accommodations.
The judge said that, in effect, the family asserted a right to emergency accommodation in a house that the council has earmarked for social housing on the basis of exceptional circumstances in which they are currently living.
The family’s refusal of six separate offers of reasonable own-door accommodation means the family is no longer homeless within the meaning of the Housing Act, the judge found.
“The family are living in extremely difficult circumstances and no one could be anything but sympathetic and concerned at that. However, they do not have rights over and above what is provided for in legislation or any enhanced rights to determine subjectively what is or is not a reasonable accommodation for them,” the judge said.
