Residents of a flat complex in Dublin city centre have said they are devastated that the planned regeneration of their homes may not go ahead.
Several residents of Pearse House say conditions are overcrowded, damp and not fit for purpose.
Dublin City Council had been planning to refurbish the social housing complex, but those plans are now on hold.
Under the proposal submitted by the council to the Department of Housing, the number of homes in blocks L, M, N and P in Pearse House would have been reduced from 78 to 44.
The amalgamation of some flats was intended to increase the size of living spaces, which do not meet modern minimum standards.
However, the Department of Housing said it has declined to fund this proposal, as it is "not in a position to support proposals that would result in a significant loss of homes".
Dublin City Council has been contacted for comment.
Joanne Lawless grew up in Pearse House and still lives there with her husband and five of her six children.
The children range in age from one to 13 years old.
Their two-bedroom flat has a floor area of 43 square metres.
The minimum standard for a two-bedroom apartment is 73 square metres.
"It's very small, we're on top of each other. One toilet between all those people, it's stressful," she said.
"My mental health is going down all the time, because you just want something better for your family and your kids.
"It's really hard for the kids, if they want to study, if they want to go somewhere to have a little bit of privacy, there's none of that."
Ms Lawless’s husband went back to higher education and will soon become a secondary school maths teacher.
However, she believes even with a teacher’s salary it is unlikely they will qualify for a mortgage or find private rental accommodation.
She said the regeneration plans had given them some hope for better living conditions, but when she found out they had been stalled she broke down in tears.
"I felt like giving up. I was devastated, you know, I mean the kids as well were devastated. We were looking forward to it. So now it just feels like you’re stuck."
Pearse House was designed in the 1930s by renowned architect Herbert Simms.
It was built to help move people out of the city’s tenements and into better living standards.
However, over the years conditions in the complex have deteriorated.
Damp and mold are encroaching on the walls of another resident’s one-bedroom flat.
The 30-year-old mother-of-two, who did not want to be named, has lived in Pearse House since she was 5 years old.
"I've always had dampness on my bedroom wall, it would be dripping with mould and water and they told me and a number of other people just to wash the walls with bleach.
"They told us to keep changing the wallpaper on it, but sure every two or three months it would come back through.
"I remember one time we actually painted the wall black because it was blending in with the mold, you know, we'd have to change it so often."
'Distraught and disheartened'
She said Dublin City Council has recently begun work to install humidifiers in her flat, but she is disappointed her home may not be refurbished.
"We were always talking about it, a few local TDs were all for it as well, we're always meeting up and we've actually got our hopes up a lot.
"We've been going to meetings with architects and Dublin City Council in the last year or two and they were giving us time frames as to when we'd be moved out when this would all be going ahead. They've shown us plans of the new buildings."
She said they were "distraught and disheartened" when they heard the Department of Housing would not provide funding for the proposals.
The Department of Housing said Dublin City Council has informed it "that they are further developing proposals to advance the regeneration of this flat complex."
"DCC has informed the Department that they have instructed the Integrated Design Team to review the design strategy to examine all possibilities to ensure the maximum number of homes are available post refurbishment.
"This work is currently ongoing and the Council will continue to liaise with the Department in order to progress the submission of a revised funding application."
Ivana Bacik, Labour leader and one of the TDs for the local area, said she was with Pearse House residents when the plans were presented to them many months ago.
"It's really unacceptable that this late in the process, the Department of Housing are now saying they can't approve the refurbishment.
"We had understood as local representatives and indeed the local residents’ association had understood, that this process was well underway.
"I simply cannot understand why there was such poor communication between the Department of Housing and the Council.
"And why plans were allowed to proceed to this late stage, where residents have been presented with them and only then this year was the plug apparently pulled."
Overcrowding putting strain on family relationships
The Children’s Rights Alliance said the kind of overcrowding experienced by Pearse House residents is a growing trend nationwide.
Tanya Ward, the organisation’s chief executive, said an increasing number of their member organisations are coming to them with concerns about the effects of overcrowding on children.
"It can be very stressful, and the research shows that often in very overcrowded situations it does affect that parent/child relationship.
"There can actually be effects on closeness, they're more likely to be in conflict with each other living in those kind of stressful situations.
"And we know that children living in those overcrowded conditions, they generally don't do as well in school, because they don't have the kind of play facilities they need or ability to do their homework."
Ms Ward said their member organisations are seeing an increasing number of people waiting for social housing who are living in the households of parents or other relatives.
"Now we don't know if those houses are overcrowded, whether you've got children over the age of 10 sharing bedrooms or different genders. And we don't know how many families might be squeezed into one or two houses. But it suggests that it is a potential problem.
"We would like to see the government actually commission research to understand the extent of overcrowding now, particularly for those families living in poverty or at risk of poverty.
"We are concerned that with the issues of affordability and the lack of supply, that overcrowding is going to cause a bigger problem and lead to some devastating results for children and young people in Ireland."
