'I was made homeless from a homeless centre' - Derry grandmother shares story of distress following her eviction

By Ursula Duddy

A 50-year-old Derry grandmother whose bungalow burnt down last September has spoken of her distress after being evicted from a women’s homeless shelter.

Louise Nash was a resident at the Clarendon Women’s Night Shelter at Ashmore House (Clarendon at Ashmore) on the Northland Road for 10 months after her Hawthorn Drive bungalow burnt down with all her belongings.

However, at the end of last month, Ms Nash was given a letter informing her that she was due to be evicted from the shelter within the hour.

She said that, prior to being given the letter there had been some issues with new management that she and other residents had expressed through the medium of a meeting with the board members of the shelter.

During a meeting in April, the women were spoken to about sharing their details on a computerised database (SASSHA) to aid the running of the shelter.

However, Ms Nash and the other residents, some in domestic abuse situations, expressed concerns at sharing sensitive details on a computerised system and a meeting was arranged with board members of the shelter in May.

During the meeting, the 13 women had also voiced further concerns about the introduction of male staff into what had been an all-female shelter for 41 years.

The rules of the shelter currently ban male children over the age of 12 from residing there.

Following the meeting with board members, the women then discovered that, despite their protests about being entered onto the computer database, their information had been shared on it since February.

Another meeting was called and the women were asked to sign a new code of conduct.

Ms Nash said that she and all the other women had already signed a code of conduct when they first came to the shelter.

She said they refused to sign the new one as they felt their concerns were not being addressed adequately by Clarendon at Ashmore.

Ms Nash then said she was advised to seek legal advice if she refused to sign the code of conduct.

She was then given an immediate notice to quit her residency on June 29, one hour before she was expected to leave.

No other woman who refused to sign was asked to leave.

The code of conduct cites that refusing to adhere to licence agreement is both major and minor misconduct.

However, there is a procedure after a resident has been deemed to be in contravention of the code of conduct wherein if the matter is deemed minor there is a four-stage process.

Major misconduct would start at stage three of this process and the resident would receive a warning that if the behaviour was repeated in 12 months a 28 day behaviour contract to quit would be issued.

Only gross misconduct warrants an immediate expulsion; the grounds of gross misconduct are violence or inappropriate behaviour towards residents or staff, damage or destruction of hostel property or proven theft.

Ms Nash said she had not been accused of any of these acts.

She also disputes the reasons for her eviction given in the letter.

She said she had already signed a code of conduct when she arrived at Ashmore House, which was accepted and she resided there for 10 months.

She refutes causing any nuisance and said that those who refused to sign the second code of conduct are adults and did so of their free will.

She also said she has continually engaged with her key worker.

Ms Nash was told by management that, if she refused to leave, she would be escorted from the building by police.

“I was told at 11am that I had until 12pm to get out or the police would be called,” she said.

“I was up packing my room up and getting my stuff out and even the members of staff were distraught because they said they had never been in this situation in the time they had worked there.

“I phoned down to the office at 3pm and asked what was happening. I was told that the manager had told them to phone the police to get me out, then he left the building.”

Ms Nash said staff were told not to help her out with her belongings so the other residents assisted her and ordered her a taxi.

The Housing Executive arranged a B&B for her to stay in and she left the building at around 5pm.

The police turned up at the shelter just 10 minutes after she had left as they had been phoned to escort her out.

“I feel like I was constantly dismissed then made an example of because we wouldn’t sign the code of conduct,” she said.

Ms Nash said she felt vulnerable and distressed after being ejected from the place she had called her home for the best part of a year.

She also said that, despite being grateful to the Housing Executive for finding her temporary accommodation at such short notice, she misses the camaraderie of the women she lived with and now feels isolated.

“When it happened, I phoned my daughter in England and I phoned my aunt, I just didn’t know what to do. I had been sick for two days before that so I had been in my room most of the time before it happened.

“I just didn’t know where to turn. I just thought that if I have to get out where could I go, I have nowhere to go.

“I thought that if it had got to the stage where the police were getting called, I was going to have to spend the night in a cell.

“I was made homeless from a homeless centre.”

The Derry News contacted Ashmore House on a number of occasions for a response to the matter.

However, there was no response from the local organisation.