Mother of two offered blood-stained mattress at council shelter
A homeless mother-of-two forced to seek assistance from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council was offered a blood-stained mattress by the shelter she attended.
Local councillor Chris Curran of Sinn Féin, who is also the chairperson of the local Housing Action Group, was contacted by the woman over the weekend.
The woman, "visibly and understandably upset", had been forced to move into the homeless unit last week.
"The stench of urine had a nauseating effect that made me almost wrench," Curran said.
"I was outraged when I inspected the property to find a badly bloodstained mattress in the bedroom more reminiscent of tenement times."
The woman also told Curran that the blood-stained mattress was in better condition than the first one that had been offered to her.
The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Action Campaign posted the image to Facebook yesterday, saying that "it was an attitude of 'take it or leave it'".
"I would challenge any councillor in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to bring their families and live in the facility for a week," Councillor Curran said.
“People end up in homeless accommodation for all sorts of reasons. It could happen to any of us over the period of a couple of pay packets."
He also said the standard of accommodation was far below that which would be expected of a facility dealing with children, and is calling for an urgent review of the accommodation.
