Calm out of the chaos

Mum & son get own place after years stuck in housing crisis

- BY LARISSA NOLAN

THE Home Rescue team tonight help out a mother and son who have finally got their own home after years being stuck in the housing crisis.

Determined duo Margaret Pierce and her son Shane are like two peas in a pod in their bright and airy fourth-floor apartment in Dublin's Rathfarnham.

But they had to overcome many challenges to finally get a place of their own, including living for years in a mobile home and then in emergency accommodation - one of Ireland's many hidden homeless families.

Margaret - who has colitis, a chronic medical condition - says autistic Shane, 12, is "the apple of my eye".

They were delighted to get their own two-bed place in the Scholarstown area in 2019 after such a housing struggle.

But since then, they've clung on to the bags and baggage from their old life, and their house is cluttered and chaotic.

They need the help of builder Peter Finn and designer Dee Coleman to make their home functional and relaxing.