One young family faces a 'nightmare' on their doorstep every time they leave their Dublin city centre home. For the last 18 months, Karol Wisniewski, his partner Paulina Kepinska and their children Julia, 7, and Sabina, 4, have been living in what they describe as a 'dump'.
Open drug use, filth, discarded drug paraphernalia and sometimes unconscious drug addicts are not conditions to raise young children in.
"My girlfriend is even afraid to go on the street during the day and we never go out during the night - we are stuck here." The curtains of the apartment have to be closed during the day so the two young girls don't see drug addicts shooting up, pissing and sh*ting on the street right below them. It is not usual for ambulances to be called down their street to resuscitate an unconscious drug user and on one occasion a dead man had to be removed from the street last summer.
The floors are "paper thin" as Karol can hear his downstairs neighbour open a can of coke and every word of a normal conversation. The television two floors down can also be heard from their living room. Bernadette Shanley is also living in the complex and has many of the same issues. The 50-year-old has epilepsy and suffers from depression and panic attacks which have been exasperated by her current living conditions.
"The options for reducing noise between apartments are limited, but carpeting the units is one effective option. To facilitate this, we took the unusual step of offering to install carpets throughout the top and middle properties at our own expense, but this was refused."