Sylvia was a resident in Peter McVerry Trust’s family hub service in Swords, Co Dublin.

The mother-of-three was renting a home in Dublin for seven years before receiving notice from the agency she was letting the property from.

“I was trying to find a house for me and my family. I saw maybe 40 houses. I sent maybe 200 emails. I had good references from my job, from my college and landlord. It still wasn’t enough,” she says.

“I went to the county council. I didn’t know what to do so [I started asking] for help. They contacted Peter McVerry Trust and Deirdre rang me and asked if I wanted to go to Swords. We had two rooms, our own kitchen, everything.  After that, they organised viewings to see houses. They organised everything.”

She secured a new home but is still in touch with Peter McVerry Trust and receives support from our staff.

“They didn’t say, bye, now you have a house. My Key Worker said ‘maybe you want to do something for yourself. Maybe you want to go to college?’ She motivated me, so I will go back to college and study again. It is in my free time because I am working during the nights, so I can study during the day,” she says.