‘Hidey hole’ for city criminals
Tenants say squatters at a social housing complex are using it as a ‘‘hidey hole’’ for criminal activity.
Ten tenants emailed a letter to O¯ tautahi Community Housing Trust (OCHT) chief executive Cate Kearney on June 20 to express their concerns that one of the 26 units at Dover Court in St Albans may be occupied by people not on the lease.
Three weeks later they are still waiting for a response. In the email the tenants asked ‘‘our housing champions’’ why they had not done anything about the ‘‘documented criminality’’ the complex had been harbouring in recent months.
They say the trust has full knowledge that people who are not tenants are living in the unit but it continues to ignore residents’ concerns.
A 2015 Christchurch City Council tenancy agreement for the same size unit at the complex states a tenant is not allowed to transfer or sublet the tenancy to another person.
It also states no more than one person (the person on the agreement) may live at the premises.
The letter said some tenants felt intimidated by the people living in the unit.
One of the tenants who signed the letter told The Press she had seen people smoking drugs inside the unit and said they appeared to sleep all day and were out all night.
She handed over security footage on police request that showed one of the group coming home in a car the police were interested in. The following day armed police raided the unit and people were dragged out, according to the tenant.
Another tenant said she saw the car being towed away by police and a man taken away in handcuffs.
A police spokesperson confirmed two males were arrested at a Dover Court address on June 1 and were charged with aggravated robbery of a motor vehicle on May 14.
The two men, one aged in his 30s and the other in his 20s, have appeared before the courts and have been remanded in custody to reappear this month.
‘‘They are young and addicted, with criminal convictions,’’ the tenant told The Press
She contacted The Press after tenants became increasingly frustrated by OCHT’s lack of action, in particular the lack of response to the letter.
The tenant had regularly contacted OCHT over the past year and a half to complain about people who were not on the lease staying at the unit but nothing had come of it, she said. ‘‘It is like an 0800 gaslighting number.’’
She believed the squatters were not the problem and pointed the finger at trust management and worried something bad would happen because a dangerous precedent was being set. ‘‘Effectively trust inaction creates pockets of unsurveilled and unmanaged hidey holes for Christchurch’s burgeoning criminal fraternity.’’
The trust was sending a message that anyone could stay at the unit, she said. ‘‘It needs to be sorted. The trust is enabling it by not addressing the tenancy problem.’’
Another tenant said she was so frightened by the group, she had chosen to stay with her daughter.
She had asked OCHT to move her into another complex because the situation had triggered her previously dormant post-traumatic stress disorder, which her doctor had supported in a letter.
She was also taking blood pressure medicine to combat stress.
The tenant said she had been at the complex for six years and knew what kind of behaviour to expect but this was on another level.
‘‘I have had washing stolen. My car has been damaged . . . you can’t live a life here.’’
She had met with OCHT a month ago about the issues but said she had been referred to the Ministry of Social Development due to her desire to leave the complex. ‘‘Nothing with the trust is ever resolved.’’
In response to tenants’ allegations, Robert Hardie, general manager of OCHT tenancy, said they could not discuss individual tenancy details. He said if a tenancy had been sublet, appropriate action would be taken through the 1986 Residential Tenancies Act.
Hardie confirmed the trust had received a letter signed by a number of tenants regarding people living at the unit that were not tenants.
The trust investigated all complaints, he said.
The Press attempted to contact residents in the unit but did not get a response.