‘Their families or the disability services will take care of them’: the invisible homeless and how Irish government policy is designed not to help them

Abstract

Most intellectually disabled adults in Ireland continue to live with their parents. For those who want and/or are forced to move out of the parental home, the default option is to avail of the various kinds of accommodation offered by the Irish disability services. This paper critically investigates the range of housing options available to intellectually disabled adults living in Ireland – some more nominal than others – and the governmental role in facilitating members of this population to live in accommodation of their choosing. The relevant issues are given voice by a mother of an adult with Down syndrome. In her search for appropriate accommodation for her daughter, she provides important experiential knowledge regarding both the shortcomings of current Irish policy and the hidden discrimination to which intellectually disabled people are subjected on a daily basis by banks and private landlords alike.

Keywords:

• invisible homeless
• government policy
• human rights
• adults with Down syndrome