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HIGH STREET HELL | 

Family under siege from drug addicts doing heroin and crack on Dublin doorstep

“We are scared living here, day time, night times, there’s always drug addicts”

Today at 21:00

This is the shocking daily sight for a family of four who say they are under siege from drug addicts doing heroin and crack cocaine on their doorstep in Dublin city centre.

Karol Wisniewski, who lives in social housing accommodation managed by Focus Ireland off Capel Street with his partner Paulina Kepinska and their children Julia, seven, and Sabina, four, said addicts are injecting and smoking heroin and crack day and night on his doorstep.

He said his family have been threatened and called “Polish rats” when they complained about the problem.

He said one addict even threatened to slice his partner’s face and he has also received death threats for highlighting the anti-social behaviour.

“We are scared living here. Day time, night time, there’s always drug addicts,” he said.

“Sometimes when I open my door there are five, six, seven needles there and blood.”

He said things are so bad he feels his daughters are effectively “passive smoking” heroin and they have to put up with discarded needles covered in blood, human faeces and urine regularly when they leave their apartment.

“We can’t even let the kids go to the playground. My kids have no life here and me and my girlfriend haven’t slept properly in two years,” he told the Sunday World this week.

Karol has stepped on needles and human faeces while walking outside his apartment and is terrified the same will happen to his kids, who are distraught living in the area.

“The principal at my kids’ school contacted me to ask why they were so scared and crying and sleeping during classes. I showed them videos of what was going on.”

Karol, who has been living in the accommodation for two years, said he has recorded over 350 videos on his phone or doorbell camera showing the situation he is living in and has asked to be moved, as it is not suitable for a family, but so far has been unsuccessful.

He praised his case worker in Focus Ireland but said he feels her hands are tied in terms of being able to help.

He showed us shocking videos showing the constant drug use.

In one video his two girls are standing across the road from the apartment waiting to go in while an addict takes drugs huddled in a corner outside their apartment.

In another, a woman is sitting on the kerb across from their apartment naked from the waist down and starts urinating into the air.

“My daughter a few days ago she called me and said ‘Daddy, this lady has no dress on’. I said ‘come back in’ and I got the phone and saw what was happening and she started to pee on the street.

“I have so many videos of how we live. We complain about the smell of heroin all the time.

“My kids are passive smoking heroin and other drugs for two years. Whenever I complain, people harass me.”

He said he has had people banging on his door shouting and his family have also been threatened in the streets.

“In the playground a guy came up to my girlfriend and said ‘we’ll slice your face you f**king Polack rat’.

“On Parnell Street, when my girlfriend passed Aldi, they said ‘we’ll burn you out you f**king Polish rats’.”

He said on another occasion an addict said he would kill him.

As well as the problem with drug use, Karol said he can hear everything in the apartment below him and even the apartment below that.

“We can hear them having a conversation on the phone, flushing the toilet, making food, even using a lighter or opening a can – you can hear everything. It’s like living with this person,” he said.

“When someone does their laundry in the building, the tables and glasses shake. I don’t think there’s proper insulation.”

There are other issues including the heating not working properly and cracks appearing around the apartment.

Karol explained that he moved to Ireland in 2005 and was renting an apartment in Dominick Street and was happy there, but found himself homeless after the landlord decided to sell.

Weeks before he left the apartment his girlfriend gave birth to Sabina and suffered a back injury during a complicated pregnancy.

He said the family found themselves homeless.

“We couldn’t find anywhere else we could afford and we were homeless. Our youngest was four months old and our older was two and a half.”

They eventually were housed in temporary accommodation where there were pigeons in the kitchen, which he showed us in a video, amongst other issues.

The couple were initially delighted when they were offered the Focus Ireland-managed accommodation near Capel Street.

“It looked nice when we came in. After a few weeks we started to notice there were needles everywhere on the street, blood everywhere and loads of drug addicts.”

It was after that neighbours moved in below and he realised there was no soundproofing.

Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy, Communications & Research with Focus Ireland, said the organisation is actively engaged with the tenants of the apartments to address ongoing concerns.

He said there was no evidence that there was drug use and drug dealing within the building but there were problems outside.

“We acknowledge that there is street-level drug use and the disposal of drug paraphernalia outside the building on Anglesea Row, which is a lane adjacent to a busy city centre street.

“As the landlord, we have contacted Dublin City Council, Merchants Quay Ireland, and encouraged the tenants to directly contact An Garda Síochána to address drug activity on the street.

“Regarding the noise complaints, we have received multiple complaints from tenants in all three apartments, and we have investigated them to minimise disruption for each household.

“We contacted the developer in response to the noise complaints to ensure compliance with current apartment regulations.

“We are satisfied that the building meets these regulations. We also offered to install carpets in the top and middle apartments to mitigate some of the noise issues, but this proposal was declined by the tenants.

“Lastly, the tenants are eligible for transfer. Even prior to their eligibility we actively supported some of their transfer applications to the Local Authority, Dublin City Council.”