Lone-parent migrant families with legal status in Ireland are trapped between Direct Provision and homelessness, according to research by ActionAid Ireland.
'Between Hope and Home' documents how parents - most of whom are women - face discrimination, unaffordable rents, inadequate supports and inconsistent local authority practices.
Six peer researchers interviewed 21 women and two men who are parenting alone and living in either direct provision (IPAS), private rental or homeless accommodation.
Despite having the right to live in Ireland, they described racism in the rental market, the impossibility of finding housing within HAP limits, and the distress of receiving eviction letters that uprooted children from schools and community supports.
Eve, who is a mother of three, said that service providers, direct provision managers, IPAS, the local council office, potential landlords seemed to be unaware of the difficulties facing migrants in this situation.
"If it is hard for the local people, it is three, four times harder for us. So, their approach should be a little bit more human. Not that we are special but a less downgrading treatment.
"Like typically, an Irish person, they have families, they have friends, they have, you know, local connections," she said.
From late 2023, families who had been granted protection were told to leave direct provision to emergency centres in another part of the country or find housing.
The change caused "deep uncertainty" for parents struggling to build stability for their children, according to the report, and it has called for an end to forcing families away from schools and communities.
The majority of eviction letters were issued during the summer school holidays.
Four months ago, the Department of Justice provided figures to RTÉ News showing that the number of people with status who had moved out of IPAS accommodation between May and August 2024.
Of the 1,661 people that moved, the breakdown of households included 520 single males, 242 single females and 309 families (899 people).
A spokesperson for the department said at the time that while new applications for international protection had reduced compared to the previous year, there were still on average 1,000 people applying for international protection every month, who were entitled to be offered reception conditions, including accommodation.
"It is essential that IPAS maintains enough accommodation to meet the needs of new applicants, who have a legal entitlement to IPAS accommodation, do not have immediate access to the labour market, and do not have access to standard housing benefits or standard social welfare entitlements," it said.
Local Connection Test
The Action Aid report has suggested that local authorities stop applying the Local Connection Test to people leaving international protection.
In the case of lone parents who may have been forced to move through several direct provision centres before achieving status, the Local Connection Test "can be particularly complex", according to the report.
"It is often the case that a family will have built a connection in an area where the children attend school, for example, and the parent may have found employment, but they are required to move to a new county or lose their place in the IPAS system."
The report has also suggested a review of current integration supports to ensure they are properly funded and coordinated.
At local level, it has recommended that housing authorities resource Local Authority Integration Teams (LAITs) to support families leaving IPAS and strengthen enforcement against discrimination in the rental market.
LAITs were established to coordinate integration supports but most participants had never heard of them and integration supports remain fragmented.
The issue of the wider housing crisis runs through the report with lone parents among those hit hardest.
While official homelessness data (outside of the Dublin Homeless Regional Executive) does not identify families or individuals exiting Direct Provision, evidence indicates that they represent a significant and growing proportion of those experiencing homelessness according to the report.
Research conducted last year showed increasing rates of homelessness among people with international protection, resulting from a heavy reliance on HAP as a mechanism to achieve adequate accommodation in a very constrained private rental market, it said.
This is combined with a change in the approach to transition management of direct provision centres which sees people with international protection being dispersed into emergency accommodation around the country and away from their social networks, often established over years.
ActionAid Ireland CEO Karol Balfe said the report provided rare, first-hand evidence of how Ireland's migration and integration policies land hardest on lone parents.
"Families are being told to leave direct provision, yet given no workable path to a safe, stable home.
"The stress this causes parents and children is avoidable and unacceptable," she said.
Ms Balfe added: "Alongside immediate measures, Action Aid is also calling for long-term reform, including the recognition of the right to adequate housing in Ireland's Constitution.
"If Ireland is serious about integration, then supporting vulnerable families to access secure housing must be treated as a priority, not an afterthought."
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