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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Emma Nevin & Dan Grennan

Dublin City Council-owned flats smeared in racist graffiti and human faeces

Tenants in Dublin City Council-owned flats have spoken of their struggle with racist graffiti, human faeces and contaminated water in the complex.

Glover Court, located just off St Stephen's Green, was built back in 1976.

Its residents have said they are spending €40-€60 a week on gas to keep the flats warm and that they are "tired of constantly bleaching are walls to get rid of the damp and mould".

Read more: 'Stealth' planning exemption for homeless hostel in south Dublin overturned

Tenants also have said that the flats' drinking water is contaminated, resulting in them having to "carry heavy bottle's of water up the stairs".

Anti-social behaviour is prevalent in the complex and tenants have regularly been "woken up by fire sirens because someone has set a fire".

A resident said: "We are tired of carrying our children over human faeces and urine every day. We are tired of being woke at night with the antisocial behaviour in the complex.

Photograph taken by a resident in Glover Court showing what they say is contaminated water (Residents of Glover Court)

"Who wants to take responsibility for 33 flats exploding because nobody is listening to our concerns."

Dublin City Council have said that the complex is on their Housing Regeneration Programme, but local councillor Daniel Ceitin told Dublin Live it may be a number of years before the problem is solved.

"Glover Court is one of two regeneration projects in the south east inner city but they're still waiting on stage one approval from the Department (for Glover Court) so you can't even go to design yet," he said.

"So you're talking another three years anyway before hopefully getting to a point where it starts."

Councillor Ceitin said the issues with the complex have been around for years.

He said: "This has been going on for a long time. Glover Court has had serious problems for years.

"It's essentially decaying before their eyes and not to mention the rampant drug use and human faeces in the stairwell.

Photograph taken by a resident in Glover Court showing what they say is human faeces (Residents of Glover Court)

"There's been meetings with the Council about it but I suppose it ends up going nowhere because now this is the plan, it'll get regenerated.

"There doesn't seem to be any urgency with it. There's no special scheme being introduced to just get people out of there and demolish it."

A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council told Dublin Live: "Dublin City Council does not deal with maintenance requests via the media and will not discuss specific cases for privacy reasons.

"Dublin City Council has a clearly outlined policy for all tenants to report maintenance queries and deals with all issues in as efficient manner as possible.

"If tenants have issues with the timeframe for repairs or estate management they should contact their Local Area Housing Office who will be happy to provide an update.

"Glovers Court is on Dublin City Council’s Housing Regeneration Programme and a Stage 1 application has been submitted to the Department of Housing for approval."

Read more: Over 10,000 people are in emergency accommodation including 3,000 children

Read more: Mum 'terrified' for young kids as they are forced to sleep rough on streets of Dublin

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