An international student has laid bare the stark realities of the Irish housing market for those looking to study here, revealing that one of her friends found a camera in her room put there by her landlord.
One in 20 international students in Ireland are being exposed to proposals of rent-free accommodation in exchange for sex, according to a new report into housing in Ireland by the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).
The report also revealed that one in seven are being offered accommodation where they are expected to share a room – and sleep in the same bed – with a stranger.
Speaking to BreakingNews.ie, Ana Valdez, an English language student from Mexico who is living and studying in Dublin, said decent housing is supposed to be a human right.
I have a friend and her landlord put some video cameras inside of her room and she didn't know until she found the camera.
"When she found the camera he said it was for security. But she asked, why not outside? Of course, she changed house but then there is problems with money.
"It's really common that they ask for money before you enter into the house when you want to rent a room or bed, and sometimes when you have a bad moment with the landlord, they don't want to return the money.
"This is really, really common and a lot of people don't give you a document when you rent."
The ‘Renting in Ireland: The Housing Crisis from the Perspective of International Students’ report is being launched on Wednesday by the ICOS at a briefing event for elected representatives at Leinster House.
Although Ireland is a beautiful country with great opportunities, Valdez said the housing crisis has turned the country into a "really bad and impossible experience" for many people.
She said it is already tough to leave your home country to study, as international students face homesickness and miss their families.
This, combined with overcrowding, poor mental health, sky-high rents, and abuse by landlords makes the transition even more difficult.
"It's really hard, of course, when you arrive from your country because you need to work a lot, you need to study. It's very common that, in the beginning, you work a lot or you are always tired.
"For a lot of people, we came from our countries where we were professionals in jobs and when we are here we have different jobs, more for service, you know, hospitality or things like that.
So in the beginning, it's really hard because you have this type of homesick, but it's also like professional-sick with the change in job.
"In the beginning you say: 'Okay, I'm going to do this because I have to learn English or because I want to know whatever things'. But sometimes when you return to your house, you have very bad housemates and they are very problematic.
"This, in my case, happened to me in my last house. I had a lot of housemates and they had like a type of connection with the landlord.
"They would always say things like 'you can't do this' or 'you can't use this'.
"Once I found a place, a good place, it was a single room with a big double bed and a space for study and it was next to a river. But I had to leave that place for my mental healh because I started to be sick all the time and very tired.
"I couldn't sleep very well, so I decided to leave the place and found another one. I know a lot of people that have depression, they feel depressed for a lot of these reasons because you are homesick for your house, for your job, for your life."
'Alarming realities'
Laura Hannon, executive director of ICOS, said: “Our new research exposes the alarming realities that international students in Ireland are struggling with to find safe, affordable and minimum-standard accommodation.
"The extent of financial strain and overcrowding is deeply concerning. Urgent action is needed to address these issues, in particular sex-for-rent exploitation, to ensure that Ireland remains a welcoming and supportive destination for international students.”
One French Erasmus student involved in the report relayed their personal story:
The owner (who has a studio in the house) asked after five days if I wanted to have sex with him.
"The house is mouldy, old and messy. My bedroom is tiny and things need to be fixed," they continued.
"There is just one bathroom with a toilet inside for seven people. The kitchen is also way too small for seven. It is cold in the house. The owner doesn’t like to spend money to repair or renew.”
A female English language student from Paraguay also described her experience of renting in Ireland: “The building where I live has water leaking in it and humidity, and nothing gets repaired. We have no heating or dryer. We also realised two months ago that the lead tenant was scamming us by charging an extra €150 per month each.”
The report also found that 61 per cent of respondents who said they were working reported that half of their monthly salary goes towards paying their rent; one-in-five respondents who worked said that they spend 70 per cent of their income on paying rent.
More than one-in-10 (11 per cent) of respondents said that they had been a victim of an accommodation scam while in Ireland, with only 14 per cent of respondents who said they were a victim of an accommodation scam reporting the incident.
More than half (54 per cent) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their mental health has been impacted due to the housing crisis in Ireland.
Ivanna Youtchak, the violence against women coordinator at the National Women’s Council, said: “ICOS’ new housing report puts a spotlight on the impact of the housing crisis on international students. In particular, we welcome the focus on sex-for-rent exploitation which particularly affects women who are international students.
"Sex-for-rent exploitation is damaging, degrading, and dehumanising for women. In its extreme form, it forces women to make a choice between homelessness and sexual exploitation.
"It primarily affects women who are renting a room in a house, as opposed to own-door accommodation, so they enter a situation of living with their predator. These renters do not have the protections granted to other tenants.”
