A homeless mother and daughter who are due to attend the same college this September say it is "impossible" to find any kind of stability in the homeless system.
Fidelma Phillips and her daughter Saoirse are hoping to both study at TU Dublin in September.
Fidelma is to start her 3rd year of Human Resource Management at the college, while Saoirse is hoping to start her 1st year studying Fine Arts.
Saoirse and her mother Fidelma. Picture: SuppliedMs Phillips became homeless when her marriage of 20 years broke down.
She told The Pat Kenny Show she stayed on her mother's couch during the first year of her studies, "but it just wasn't feasible".
"Last November I made the made the decision to go into the homeless accommodation, on the [pretext] that I'd get supported," she said.
"The supports weren't there, because I don't fall into a category of an alcoholic or drug user or that.
"This is societies, and the system's, way of looking at it – if you're homeless you have to have one of those problems".
'State of anxiety'
Ms Phillips said one hostel she stayed in had hourly checks, due to the nature of the other residents.
"They have to do that because they're used to the system being based on drug addicts," she said.
"If you're trying to study or that, you're getting disturbed on the hour.
"If it's not on the hour, it could be at a quarter past, twenty past, half past - so you're in a state of anxiety continually."
Fidelma Phillips and Pat Kenny in Newstalk studios. Picture by: NewstalkMs Phillips said she has recently been moved into two-bedroom apartment.
"I got moved on Wednesday evening; it's still classed as homeless accommodation," she said.
"We signed an agreement for six months on the [pretext] that we continued to look for HAP.
"Obviously if something comes up with the council to go there".
Ms Phillips said the council system itself is flawed because of how it priorities people with addiction issues.
'It's not stable'
Ms Phillips said she needs stability to be able to get out of the emergency accommodation system.
"It's not stable, there's nothing stable in that plan," she said.
"Last week on Friday I got a phone call [and] I'm moved by Wednesday.
"Everything happens fairly quick so you're making decisions on the go, rather than actually being able to think things through".
She added that in an ideal world, "I would just like a place that is guaranteed for the next two years, that I don't have to worry, I can just focus on my studies.
"Hopefully then I'll get a good job and I won't ever need the system again".
'They have supported me'
Ms Phillips praised TU Dublin for supporting her "every which way."
"They've offered services like counselling, the tutors themselves - it's a very close-knit course - they have supported me," she said.
"The actual students themselves - I'm the oldest in the class, by a long shot - they've just gotten on with it.
"Where they can they help me, plus I'm dyslexic so they give me an extra little [help]," she added.
'The system is impossible'
Ms Phillips said the system is 'impossible' for people like her – noting that it doesn’t classify people as homeless when they can stay with family, as she was with her mother.
"They would classify me as being housed and take me off the list, and then I'd have to come up with too high of a cost," she said.
"In order for somebody on regular HAP to move out, they have to have the first month and two months' rent.
"It's infeasible because if you're on the dole, you're only on €220.
"It's impossible, the system itself is impossible.
"How you can tell somebody to put up a deposit, along with two months' rent, that are on a State payment?" she added.
