Family trapped in living hell as home under siege from intimidating drug addicts

• Published date: 10 February 2023
• Publication title: DublinLive (Ireland)

However, one young family faces this "nightmare" on their doorstep every time they leave their city centre home. For the last 18 months, Karol Wisniewski, his partner Paulina Josephine and their children Julia, 4, and Sabinka, 7, have been living in what they describe as a "dump"

They were homeless for two and a half years before Dublin City Council offered them the city centre apartment. They thought their dreams had come true but it quickly became a nightmare.

Karol said: "They offered me this but nobody told me the road was full of drug addicted people, there is a homeless hostel nearby and that people regularly pee and poo on the street."

"There is pee and poo everywhere", he said. Karol has a collection of over 200 videos of the filth, the needles, people smoking crack and shooting heroin as well as a shocking incident of a woman being resuscitated by the emergency services.

"My girlfriend is even afraid to go on the street during the day and we never go out during the night - we are stuck here."

The floors were level when they moved in but it has started to sink in places. So much so, that a bottle of water rolls down the floor by itself.

The walls have also started to crack in places and the heating doesn't work. They rely on an electric heater to heat the apartment.

Now, the desperate dad and mam are at their wits end after living in the "dump" for a year and a half.

The curtains of the apartment have to be closed during the day so the two young girls don't see drug addicts shooting up, pissing and sh*ting on the street right below them. It is not usual for ambulances to be called down their street to resuscitate an unconscious drug user and on one occasion a dead man had to be removed from the street last summer.

The Approved Housing Body managing the building, Focus Ireland, said they were "aware" of the "ongoing concerns" but added they were not responsible for drug-related issues which they called an "external nuisance".

Focus Ireland's Director of Advocacy, Communications and Research Mike Allen said: "We are aware of street-level drug use and disposal of drug paraphernalia outside the building. In relation to this external nuisance, as a landlord, we have contacted Dublin City Council, Merchants Quay Ireland and encouraged the tenants to make direct contact with An Garda Siochana to help address some of the drug activity on the street, however, this is ultimately out of our control and is a regrettable factor for many people living in a city...