A visually-impaired homeless woman has called on a council to save lives and give people their dignity by providing clean and safe hostels.
Rosemary Fearsaor-Hughes claimed foam insulation spray on the ceiling of her shared accommodation has contributed to her coughing up blood.
She added it is used to stop a multitude of leaks in the roof.
The 36-year-old, who is visually impaired and has a guide dog, has been homeless for a decade.
Rosemary said: “If the hostels were safe people would be in them, safety is paramount and is the thing you’re looking at all the time.
“It could save lives. Everyone needs their safety, privacy and dignity. You have that in a tent, you don’t have that in here.”
The Co Galway native, who has lived in Dublin for 20 years, believes single rooms and six-month beds with support services are urgently needed.
Rosemary added: “It would make a big difference to me to have a six-month bed. It would be life-changing if I could get out of this.”
The woman divides her time between sleeping rough in a doorway and staying in a homeless hostel in the capital.
Rosemary, who has no addiction issues and believes the common areas are “dangerous”, said: “I think that there should be basically hostels and say one set of alcoholics in one and people with a heroin addiction in another hostel and they are supervised for those addictions.
“I’m not on the housing list. I’ve literally been left in limbo. There is no priority, there is nothing for me.
“You have to be in hostels for six months or more every night to actually get there.
“The other thing is, disability, it goes very much against you for HAP and in a lot of areas.”
Rosemary suffers from macular dystrophy (Stargardts disease) and fibromyalaiga, a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body plus other symptoms such as extreme tiredness, headaches, muscle stiffness and difficulty sleeping.
She had been staying at another homeless hostel until three-and-a-half years ago, which was one of few which catered for her disability needs.
Rosemary, who has been sleeping rough and staying at her current hostel since mid-2019, claims she was abused as a teenager and has been on the streets since her mid-teens.
She said the fire alarm went off at 6am yesterday in the hostel after a man “set the bins in the toilets alight whilst smoking gear”.
Rosemary, who is unable to work, said she has been assaulted and threatened in needle-ridden facilities.
She was sent to A&E on December 20 by her GP as she was coughing up blood and had chest pains.
She added: “I’m having difficulty breathing and I’m struggling and I’ve never experienced anything like this before.
“In this place, they have an insulation spray foam up on the ceilings and when it rains heavy literally particles of spray foam come down and you’re breathing them in.”
A Dublin Regional Homeless Executive spokeswoman said last night: “The DRHE does not comment on individual circumstances, other than to say in this case this lady has been in supported accommodation for over six months with access to appropriate supports and a key worker.
“We proactively deal with all received complaints and appropriate action is taken if required.
“All NGO providers operate their own robust complaints policy and deal promptly with any issues or concerns brought to their attention by any client."
A spokesperson for Depaul said: "We take any complaints from service users very seriously and have robust policies in terms of addressing any issues that may arise within all our services.
"Little Britain is a fully supported temporary accommodation which provides six month stay beds for those experiencing homelessness.
"It is important to acknowledge there is drug use within homeless services and we do work with people who are in active addiction however, Depaul in no way condones or encourages drug use in our services.
"Sharpy bins are provided for the safe disposal of sharp objects, including syringes and it is common practice to have sharpy bins in homeless services for this reason.
"This is done in an effort to ensure the safety of service users and staff."
