St Helen’s Court residents to meet landlord in court this Friday

Residents at St. Helen’s Court, Dún Laoghaire will find out shortly if their long standing fight against their attempted eviction by their landlords has been successful.

On Friday, February 4 the tenants and the landlords will meet in court to determine their future in the complex, four years after first being threatened with eviction.

A protest took place outside the Four Courts in Dublin on Saturday to show support for the tenants.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett, who helped organised the protest, said the residents are in a “shocking situation.”

“The tenants of St Helen’s Court will be in the courts this Friday where it is possible that they will be given an eviction order from their homes because of their vulture fund landlord.

“This is an absolutely shocking situation where tenants are facing being thrown out on the street,” he said.

“The government’s rhetoric and policy on housing and tenant security is being exposed as a joke.

“These tenants are literally facing homelessness as there is no social housing and rents are far in excess of the HAP limits which means they have nowhere to go.

“The other shocking aspect of this eviction is that it takes place when in the same complex the VF owns up to 15 other apartments which they claimed to the RTB they intended to rent but which in fact have now sat empty for two years. It is obscene that they can evict tenants into homelessness and leave other properties empty when people are crying out for housing in the area.

“The government should intervene with the council and buy the complex to keep these tenants in place and use the rest of the apartments for social housing

“We will of course be at the courts on Friday supporting these tenants in any way we can.”