Turning 18, and, eh, homeless.

LegacyUser

I am going to be homeless as of June 24th. There is nothing that I can do about this, there is no reconciliation with my mother. It is not possible and irrelevant to this thread.

My situation is as such, I'm joining the United States Air Force (I'm a duel citizen), and I won't be able to ship off to Basic Training until November/December (Currently, I'm on the DEP, Delayed Enlistment Program). My quandary, is I am turning 18 very soon and have nowhere to go, not for that amount of time. I could probably stay at a friends for a week, or maybe a tad longer, but no ridiculous six month type deals.

My question is, what the hell am I supposed to do? I've put a CV into over 100 jobs since April. The situation appears rather hopeless. Who am I supposed to contact? Is there government assistance I can avail of? It seems to be that Ireland doesn't have a safety net for 18 year olds in my situation. I genuinely terrified and have no clue as to what I'm supposed to do. Any help would be, eh, helpful

Thank you

I've no idea to be honest but you should find out where/when your Community Welfare Officer is and talk to them. Try looking online with "Community Welfare Officer <your town name>", or ask someone local, possibly even the local post office might know.

bigmac147

where are you currently residing ie which county or if in dublin what part ie fingal, south county dublin etc. need to find that out before i could try and give any other advice

miamee

Your first stop is the Social Welfare to see what, if anything, you are entitled to. Aside from that, do you have any relatives you could stay with? Or if you contacted the USAF, is there anything you could do to arrive a few months before training starts, i.e. work for your board until training starts or something similar?

username123

AwfullyConcerned wrote: »

Is there government assistance I can avail of? It seems to be that Ireland doesn't have a safety net for 18 year olds in my situation. I genuinely terrified and have no clue as to what I'm supposed to do. Any help would be, eh, helpful

Thank you

Contact Citizens Information - you will get better advice from them than from someone who actually works in social welfare, in my experience they tend to know more about the more up to date changes to various schemes as well.

yermandan

Contact Focus Ireland on 01-6712555 or call in to their Coffee Shop and Advice centre in 15 Eustace Street, Dublin 2.

Opening hours:

Mon/Tues/Thurs/Fri - 10.30am - 5pm
Wed - 11.30am - 5pm
Sat/Sun/Bank Hols - 11.30 - 3

Good luck

Neyite

bigmac147 wrote: »

where are you currently residing ie which county or if in dublin what part ie fingal, south county dublin etc. need to find that out before i could try and give any other advice

No, you do NOT need this information. The Personal Issues forum protects the anonymity of their posters and they are NOT required to give you their location, approximate or otherwise. Please familiarise yourself with the Forum Charter

bigmac147

sorry neyite(moderator) the reason I was asking is because every county has a different office to deal with and Dublin is spilt into different city councils so it is relevant if looked at in that way. I'm not looking for the op home address, he's facing into an Extremely Difficult situation, tbh his life could fall apart with what he's facing. If anyone thinks just becoming homeless is the bottom of the ladder i'd advise them to start looking down, way down. I'd like to try and give the op as much information as is possible so that IF what he says comes to pass he'll at least be some what prepared for the situations he'll have to face.
TBH how are we suppose to help this chap out WITHOUT knowing what county he's in. pointless in trying to give any info/advice at this moment in time

dar100

Social Welfare wont be able to do anything other than give you a phone number. This is what the process entails;

Firstly you will have to sign on the homeless list in the housing agency for your area, i.e Dublin City Council or Fingal County Council, which cover all of the north side of Dublin and some of the southside. There are other council agencies for the southside also.

In order to register as homeless you must first spend a night in a hostel and get a letter stating that this is your address (I know, you need an address to sign up as homeless, only in Ireland). There are a number of hostels which will assist you with this i.e Focus Ireland, Crosscare, Depaul Trust, Salvation Army, Simion Community, all based around Dublin, but mainly in the city center.

The social welfare will do nothing for you, other than give you a number to phone, as will the council. After you have spent some time in the hostel you will be entitled to claim rent allowance, I am not to sure how long this needs to be, but I did hear this needs t be six months (I may be wrong). To be honest, there are not many properties that a single person would be able to rent with the money given by the social welfare, allowance is been cut, landlords are raising rent and with people renting as opposed to buying there is not much on the market presently. Additionally, the type of property that you will be funded to rent i.e bedsits, mainly housed in old Georgian buildings have been issued with warnings to refurbish or they have to close, which many have been told to do already.

I know it is not an ideal situation, but ou will not be left on the streets, there are many good organisations out there which will support you in your attempt to find housing. Hope this helps