Homeless children: One-year-old living in hostel
One-year-old Barry Flynn lives in a hostel with his dad. He has never had a home of his own.
He is one of more than 2,000 homeless children living in temporary accommodation in Northern Ireland.
“It’s hard, like getting blood out of a stone, trying to get those points and get housed.” Barry’s dad, also called Barry, told BBC News NI.
A spokesman for HoExecutive said it hopes to provide pair with a permanent home soon.
Mr Flynn had a bedsit of his own before his son was born, but because he has learning difficulties, he was required to move into an assessment centre for 17 weeks at start of his son’s life.
He then had to give bedsit up as it was deemed not suitable for a baby.
He is no longer with Barry’s mum.
So after completing assessment, pair had no home to go back to.
That’s when they were moved into hostel they are currently living in.
“We’ve been living here pretty much all of wee Barry’s life,” said Mr Flynn.
“The way things are going I can see us being here for another year.”
As of January 2019, there were 2,431 homeless children in temporary accommodation in Northern Ireland.
Like any father, Mr Flynn, 27, is keen for his son to grow up with freedom of his own home.
“I wish we had a place with a back garden, they stop people coming into hostels to visit stuff you can’t really do your own thing,” he said.
“All this is doing is holding us back.”
Mr Flynn confessed he never imagined that this was how things would end up when he was with his son’s mum, but he said it was a “good experience” raising his son.
He is positive about hostel he is staying in now, despite normally being only man living there.
“What was difficult about Barry’s situation was that he had a house had to give it up,” said Jenny Potter, community development manager with Now Group, a charity which provides support to people with learning difficulties.
“There appears to be a hoissue right across Belfast, but surprisingly, for families with very young children as well.
“Early years are so important in a child’s life, they need stability they need appropriate accommodation while there are fantastic facilities like this one, there should be opportunities for families to get permanent hofact that a single dad with a one-year-old is not top priority on holist is quite shocking.
“And particularly when Barry (senior) has some additional support needs, you would think he would be getting more points be able to get a house in a much, much shorter amount of time than waiting well over a year with no end in sight.”
‘Vulnerable people’
A HoExecutive spokesman said Mr Flynn had asked to be housed in an area of high hodemlow hoturnover.
He said that in last five years there had been an increased number of people presenting being accepted as homeless or seeking to be re-housed.
“Some of main reasons for people presenting to us include hothat is no longer suitable for a person’s needs, loss of rental accommodation or relationship breakdown,” he said.
“Our priority is to find good hosolutions in all cases we work with a range of statutory voluntary agencies to address every individual’s needs.
“We are increasingly seeing more more vulnerable people present as homeless everyone who presents as homeless, who is in priority need of housing, will be offered temporary accommodation.”
By: By Erinn Kerr
BBC News NI
