Craigavon woman says Housing Executive are failing her

The executive in turn have said the lady in question has been offered a number of houses which she has refused.

In July 2009 the ‘MAIL’ reported that Donna Loughran (44) had been forced out of her home in Drumbeg.

At the time she said: “There was a crowd of people out the front of my home throwing stones and bottles one night.

“I shouted at them through the window and asked them to stop it. The next thing I know the police are at my door telling me there is a threat giving me 48 hours to get out of my home.”

Her daughter Sarah-Louise (18) contacted the ‘MAIL’ this week to say: “My mum is living in a private rental in Pinebank now, but she can’t afford it anymore.

“They offered us a three bedroom house in Shankill that would have been perfect for mum, me and my son but then they threatened to take that offer away and give her a two bedroom house instead.

“I had to get a place of my own at that stage because a two bedroom house wasn’t big enough for all of us. My mum also has another two children, a boy and a girl aged 13 and 12. She doesn’t have full custody of them, but they stay over with her some of the time. They’re at an age they couldn’t share a room.”

Sarah-Louise added: “When we were put out of Drumbeg we ended up on the Mahon Road in Portadown, but that didn’t work out. We ended up back in Taghnevan, but the trouble started up again. We don’t know why it’s going on.”

She said since leaving Taghnevan all the offers of housing from the Housing Executive have been unsuitable. She claimed the Housing Executive are using the threat against the family as ‘an excuse’ not to rehouse her mother.

A spokesperson for the Housing Executive said: “Miss Loughran applied for social housing which included her daughter and grandson. She was offered a three bedroom property which wasn’t immediately available. Since then her daughter and grandson have found another property so we couldn’t offer her a three bedroom house.

“There were a number of previous offers but she couldn’t take them up because of threats to her safety.”