Social unit nightmare

Elderly woman says behaviour ‘insane’

THE lack of answers to abusive behaviour in Townsville’s social housing has been described as “insane” by one affected elderly woman.

“If I had to diagnose public housing as an institution, I would say they’re mentally ill. Their training is woefully inadequate. The management just seems insane,” the woman said.

The woman, who is the fourth individual living in such conditions to come forward to tell the Townsville Bulletin about ongoing troubles, said that at first social housing had seemed perfect.

“I was quite thrilled at first, but it’s turned into a nightmare. I’m grateful to have public housing. It’s something I can afford, but they told me it was for seniors and it would be women only,” the resident said.

“Since then, I’ve been living with young people with drug problems and we just don’t mix. The younger people prey on the older people.”

The woman said there had been a need to relearn “how to survive” since moving into a unit within a housing complex a year ago.

“We’re frequently visited by drug addicts, we have drug dealers living here, there are assaults and domestic violence happening in the carpark,” the resident said. “They won’t do anything about it. They won’t give us security screen doors, we can’t even put a safety chain on our doors.

“At night, I won’t go outside, I lock up as best as I can and I don’t go out after dark. It becomes a hive of activity then.

“We’ve all been threatened while we’re here, a lot of the older people have had death threats.”

She said that she’d repeatedly called the police in order to request for someone to come by and patrol the area after dark, but was told she’d have to go online to report the matter.

“I don’t have the internet, the housing department charges you $360, which is just not something I can afford.

“If you ring and make a complaint, they’ll take the first few calls and then you go straight to voicemail. They just pretend you’ll walk away and give up.”

At least one other woman who has spoken to the Bulletin has backed up the resident’s claims, describing a situation in their complex where a family was moved out after destroying their unit following a number of reports of drug deals being conducted there.

However, despite the complaints, the resident said the housing department was uninterested in dealing with the issues. “The taxpayer money that is being spent on these beautiful housing units is being wasted by the hopeless people running these organisations,” she said.