PATHS
The PATHS Project is an 18-month NDA-funded research initiative exploring how housing conditions impact the health, wellbeing, dignity, and everyday lives of disabled Travellers in Ireland. Through collaborative workshops and engagement with disabled Travellers, families, carers, and advocacy organisations, the project aims to document lived experiences and co-create practical, culturally appropriate recommendations for policy and service improvement.
Accessible housing starts with who it's designed for
The Traveller community face some of the starkest health inequalities in Ireland, and housing is one of the clearest drivers of that gap.
This is even more true for Travellers with disabilities, whose experiences of inadequate accommodation remain largely undocumented in existing research.
Building on our earlier SEAI-funded MOBILISE project, which researched the link between energy poverty and health within the Traveller community, PATHS is investigating how housing conditions shape the health and wellbeing of disabled Travellers specifically, working alongside the community to co-create recommendations that are both inclusive and culturally grounded.
Aim 1:
Accurately convey the lived experience of disabled Travellers, and their families and supporters, across different housing contexts (halting sites, local authority housing, or unofficial sites), and how those conditions affect physical and mental health.
Aim 2:
Understand how housing barriers limit disabled Travellers' access to healthcare, education, and social participation, for both individuals and their wider family networks.
Aim 3:
Work with disabled Travellers, families, and advocacy organisations to co-create practical, culturally appropriate recommendations that can directly inform housing and health policy.