Help the Kevin Family Stay in their Home

This petition is set up to show support for the Kevin family who are residing in 22 Woodview Close, Nenagh.

We are pleading with the Council to be compassionate with this case. We are hoping that the family will not be evicted or forcibly removed from the home the family has lived in for over 25 years.

The tragedies that the Kevin family has endured over the last 11 years are unimaginable. The untimely death of their beloved son and brother, Alan, in 2013, left the family buried in grief.

Tommy Kevin (their father) was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in July 2017 and underwent gruelling treatments which left him very sick and frail. Catherine Kevin (their mother) was also very sick with cancer, as yet undiagnosed, at that time.

Paul moved back home early in 2020 to help his brothers care for both parents who were weak and unable to manage their day-to-day needs. Tommy sadly passed away in August 2021, having suffered in terrible pain at the end of his life.

Paul gave up his full-time job completely in November 2021 to care for his mother as she was not coping well after her beloved Tommy’s death.

Unfortunately, Catherine passed away only eight months after Tommy in April 2022, also in painful and difficult circumstances, leaving Paul and the entire family completely distraught.

The last thought in his mind throughout all of this was the tenancy on the house. His sole mission was to care for his parents, and the death of his mother, in particular, was highly traumatic and unexpected.
The entire family was again plunged into grief and all sense of normalcy was destroyed.

Paul’s brother, Brian, was officially a Council occupant in the house and had lived in the house since he was a child with his parents and siblings. Brian tried to secure full tenancy via a succession application but found the process difficult and stressful. Having been refused succession by the Council, Brian sadly gave up the tenancy early in 2023.

Throughout all of this, Paul and Shauna continued to faithfully pay rent to the council while they tried to work on a solution. They had given up their HAP accommodation at this point due to the financial stress of paying rent on two properties. Shauna had also given birth to a beautiful baby boy, named Tom for his grandfather, in November 2022.

Brian, and Paul and Shauna, have returned all the documentation that was asked of them by the Council. They have tried hard to navigate a complex and difficult process to retain the family home.

Paul and Shauna have even accepted that they may need to find alternative accommodation and have been searching for a rental property since July 2023 but cannot find one. There are almost no properties to be found, and anything that is available is far out of their budget, even with financial assistance from HAP. They have now accepted that they may have to part with their family pet in order to be accepted for a private tenancy. A number of properties have passed them by due to poor coordination from the Council, which is essential for a HAP tenancy.

All the while, the Council has applied pressure on the family to leave the property, with a Court Order to appear in Nenagh District Court on 11th April for the purpose of seeking an eviction order.

Shauna is originally from Charleville and her family mostly live in the UK now; while Paul’s parents are deceased. They do not have anywhere to go and face the prospect of going into homelessness. The couple’s second baby, a little girl, was due to arrive on 14th March and will surely be here by the time the court date comes around. Shauna faces the prospect of going to court with a newborn to be evicted with nowhere to go. It is a harrowing prospect for this young family who have tried to do the right thing by Paul’s parents in their hour of need.

To make all of the above worse, each of Paul and Shauna have diagnosed medical conditions that place them under significant strain. For privacy reasons they are not detailed in this petition, however the Council is aware of the severity of their illnesses, and the effect they have on their day to day lives.

The sole property that the Council showed the family as an alternative was in an old building, poorly maintained and with significant mould and damp. The apartment the family were shown was up three flights of stairs. Shauna simply would not be able to manage this physically and it would put her health at risk. Even worse, young Tom has asthma and requires an inhaler. The damp and mould would likely make him very sick, and the couple were concerned for their imminent new arrival. They regretfully declined this property. Tipperary County Council has not shown them any other properties.

We, concerned neighbours of the Kevin family, would like to ask you to sign your name and address at the bottom of this petition to plead the family’s case with the Council.
We will then deliver this petition to the Council and ask that it be placed on file for the Kevin Family’s housing application, and that consideration is given to giving the family a tenancy at the house their family has been paying rent, never without a delay or issue, to the Council for over 25 years (38 years when we consider the tenancy Tommy and Catherine first held before their family grew too big and they moved to Woodview Close). Surely this family deserves some consideration to be allowed to stay in the family home.