No place to call home for Irish students in New York this summer

A summer of work sun and fun has turned into a nightmare for visiting Irish students

“It’s just really dodgy,” adds Lawlor, a third year construction student at Limerick Institute of Technology. 

“Plus,” said Hoot, “there are eight of us in a two bedroom apartment that is so small so there are four of us sleeping in the living room.”

Condron said they don’t really feel safe in the area. “There is a drug rehab center right next to the house and there are a lot of dodgy characters going in and out at all hours of the night,” he said.

Little did Condron and the boys know that Wednesday was going to be their lucky day – well, sort of!

Last Wednesday they took a half day from their maintenance jobs -- the three friends work in an apartment building in the city for $500 each a week doing odds and ends jobs -- to find a better place to stay for the remainder of the summer.

After hours of searching the Internet for accommodation and sharing their story with Maura Jordan at the front desk of the Aisling Center, the center staff introduced the boys to four lovely ladies from Co. Mayo -- Niamh Healy, 19, Denise Gallagher, 19, Aislinn Farrington, 19 and Meave Rattigan, 19.

Luckily for the boys, the girls, who were at the center looking for jobs, needed to rent out a room in a house they sub-letted for the summer in Yonkers. A perfect match was created.

After informal introductions, the Clare boys, with big smiles, took the next bus back down to Harlem, packed their bags and were back up in Yonkers within two hours.

“This is just great altogether,” said Condron, with one leg out the door of the center.   “We never thought we would get that lucky.”

However, it turned out the accommodation is only available to the boys until the end of June, so Condron contacted the Irish Voice on Monday to let us know they are still in the market for a one bedroom apartment come July.

“We just need somewhere for six or seven weeks because the girls have other people coming over, so hopefully someone will have something they can rent to us for that short time,” said Condron.

“We are very clean lads and very respectful to others, so we won’t be noisy or anything like that. Basically we would be good tenants,” he added.

Said Lawlor, “I really think that those few students last year who wrecked some of the places they stayed in have spoiled our chances of getting a decent place to stay for the summer.”

The girls, all friends from Co. Mayo, have had no luck finding jobs. Similar to the three boys from Cork, they have handed in resumes and filled out numerous application forms for several jobs, but to no avail.

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Nster.com