From quiet street to violent street

Three years of living in a street with a problem Housing NZ tenant has left a reader, who prefers to remain unnamed, questioning just who the agency’s ‘‘sustainable tenancies’’ are sustainable for?

Ilive in small-town suburban Motueka. It used to be a quiet, peaceful street when we moved in more than a decade ago. Our street has a mixture of privately-owned homes and Housing New Zealand ones but none of this was of much consequence – until the state housing agency moved in a new tenant three years ago.

In those three years I’ve learnt more about child neglect and abuse, violent communication, toxic relationships, protection orders, noise control and what a tinny house in action looks like than I ever knew before.

I’ve seen how the law comes down hard in favour of the woman, even when she’s the more abusive parent and partner.

I’ve made more calls to the police than ever before in my life and I’ve learnt that when you communicate your very real concerns about vulnerable children to Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children, you can expect silence in return.

The other main lesson I’ve learnt is that Housing NZ’s new really sustainable for.

And the answer is that they’re certainly not for the longsuffering pensioners who have lived on the street quietly for decades, or the solo mum who’s trying her darndest to give her brood a better start than she had.

Nor for the hard-working families, quietly living their lives and just trying to enjoy life and raise their kids.

But maybe since last Friday night things will be different?

Maybe now there’s been a deliberate hit and run with one person still seriously injured in hospital, they’ll reconsider?

Maybe in the light of the fact that since their tenant’s very loud and violent relationship has finally ended and she has chosen to fill her house with young men, some of whom were allegedly among those involved in last Friday night’s terrifying incident, they’ll have a rethink?

Or is the sound of car windows being smashed in, raging young men, frantic female screaming, out-of-control engine revving, and the red and blue strobe lights of police pouring in the windows in the middle of the night just something we have to live with?

Maybe. But not sustainably.