Reducing public housing crime
IN the 1950s public housing development started in Fiji for the first time, its main aim to provide affordable homes for low income owners.
Over the years, the hardships faced in some public housing estates have been stepping stones of success.
Many children who grew up in public housing estates have become productive and responsible citizens. Some are making a name for themselves in the world of law, business, education, medicine and sports.
Some, because of wrong choices and associations, have influenced the popular perception that public housing estates breed crime and criminal activities.
This week, we saw why the perception above holds some truth. The bad blood in Nabua has existed for some time now, its roots spanning over decades, some say. In the most recent case, one begins to wonder how our authorities will deal with the issue if they ever have an intention of seeing it disappear.
Without a doubt, the latest acts of thuggery have now driven fear and insecurity among households within the Mead and Sukanaivalu Road corridor.
Women and children will find the latest gang-style of violence overtly distressing and traumatising. An urgent call for action by civil society organisations, interest groups and public figures is indeed well-founded.
One thing is for sure, the Nabua turf wars will not dissipate any time soon. It may even get worse.
What is needed is a concerted effort that encourages collaboration from among various stakeholder groups.
This cooperation, which taps into the affected community’s own strengths, is needed because the root causes of what we witnessed a few days ago could be many and deeply entrenched.
Many people, among them residents, have pointed out that the police force needs to be more involved and vigilant.
It is true we need police to bring about some semblance of safety, law and order and security where we live.
But the truth is the police, or our security forces for that matter, cannot tackle the spate of violence at Nabua alone.
Many studies have been conducted in large housing projects around the world to find out interventions for controlling crime and properly managing public low-cost housing communities.
The same should be done in Fiji, with the participation of key stakeholders, to develop the appropriate crime control and reduction programs, specifically for our many overcrowded and run-down public housing neighbourhoods.
Research papers seem to agree that physical factors such as the “lack of surveillance opportunities, housing layout and facilities and access control,” among others, make criminal activities thrive and detection/apprehension harder.
They also recognise that social factors including the lack of employment opportunities, inadequate social support services and a lack of character-building activities for youth, “create the economic and psychological motivations” to engage in criminal acts.
Also, social problems make the resident population more vulnerable, especially disadvantaged women, children and minority groupings.
Opposition MP, Lynda Tabuya made a viable suggestion on her Facebook page the other day, saying Nabua needed new sports and recreational facilities to help steer youths away from trouble. Her recommendation appears practical and relevant.
Some of our housing estates have playgrounds, sports pitches and buildings but many of these have been poorly maintained and ignored for years. Quickly they have become the perfect backgrounds for graffiti exhibits and mischief-making.
Over time, these rundown facilities become dens of criminals and criminal activities. Haven’t you noticed how youths quickly transform vacant houses in the neighbourhood into popular drinking, smoking and dating spots?
Experts in the area of criminal justice have realized that the resources of the police, courts and prisons put together cannot effectively address crime rates.
On the other hand, the principles espoused by non-competitive sporting activities have the ability to instil in young people the values necessary for personal development, sharing, fairness and respect for each other.
Furthermore, sports enhance the learning of important life skills and empower individuals to be cooperative, mentally resilient, confident and dedicated.
I am of the belief that one of the most important stakeholders in the Nabua fiasco, which we tend to easily forget, is the owner of the flats - the landlord.
Moving forward, perhaps there is now a need to change the way it manages its property and engages with its tenants. Public housing is about managing property, managing finance and managing tenants.
The fact is, landlords cannot just put people in their property expecting financial return and turn a blind eye to the criminal activities of tenants or their plight.
It is understood that landlords cannot monitor its tenants 24/7. However, it must demonstrate that it is committed to working with them, using creative methodologies, to bring about desired changes in the space where families live their daily lives and call home.
Tenants’ reservoir of talents, creativity and experience can be turned into a helpful management resource.
Key to this is building trust through consultation and open communication. Together, the landlord and tenant of public housing must build a sense of belonging in the community, where both understand each other’s roles and know their individual responsibilities.
Working with municipal authorities, the landlord should make sure street lights are working at night to remove dark spots where idle youths loiter and engage in criminal behaviour.
Vacant blocks within the property, especially those in backyards can be converted into communal gardens. The housing area needs to be an interesting place to leave, with parks, benches, swings for children and shops.
The landlord should ensure residents don’t develop a feeling of being socially isolated from the rest of the population. Residents must not feel cut off from amenities and public services other citizens enjoy. Happy families create crime-free communities.
Residents could be engaged in periodic street clean-ups, mural paintings on naked walls, tree and flower garden planting activities et cetera.
During tenant recruitment phase, stringent screening and selection should be done to control the quality of tenants, ensuring that family background and family density are considered. Sitting tenants can form a committee to help screen and select to-be tenants.
The landlord can organise public holiday programmes for housing estate families to forge a sense common identity and communal ownership of the property they share.
Such family-oriented programmes should tap into the human resources available in the housing community without placing unnecessary financial burden on tenants.
There should be regular inspection on housing estates to ensure that drains, switches, gates, door locks, louvres are in working condition. Personal hygiene should be encouraged and there must be ways to properly dispose waste.
When a landlord ignores its tenants and only engages with them when collecting monthly rentals, it immediately loses the opportunity to show its resident population that they matter. This in turn, creates in tenants the feeling that they are unwanted, unsupervised and free to vent out their frustration in the way they like.
Regular engagements whether through periodic activities or regular “town halls” can go a long way in showing tenants who is in charge and that homes have rules that need to be respected.
Decisions on security needs and changes should involve residents. Neighbourhood watches, if present but defunct, should be revived to increase surveillance and boost crime reporting without putting individuals at risk.
Whistleblowing must be encouraged and information received must be treated with confidentiality.
The landlord and tenant must and should work together to monitor activities within the boundary of the housing block and problem reporting mechanisms should be put in place and followed.
As community policing initiatives would agree, active housing community and landlord associations can promote civic mindedness and warn or discourage any man, woman or youth who is involved in crime or intends to commit it.
Changing management processes and practices can help reduce crime, mould law-abiding citizenry and promote safe and peaceful living in our country’s housing neighbourhoods.
The bottom is, all key stakeholders must play their part. Otherwise, the home, which we all look up to as the harbour of love will slowly transform into a place of distress, discontentment and lawlessness.
Until we meet on this same page same time next week, Happy Fiji Day and stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe.