Finchley Court residents Steve and Doreen Gow and Ranjini and Krishnan want more to be done to stop Office of Housing tenants causing grief to neighbours in the area. Picture: Meagan Rogers.
By Callan Date
PUBLIC housing in the City of Casey is under the spotlight again after the latest in a string of terror tenants were evicted from an Endeavour Hills house last week.
Finchley Court residents say they have endured four years of hell from several different residents living in the State Government-owned Office of Housing property.
The latest in a long line of incidents was the recent dumping of a large skip full of rubbish in the front garden of the house.
The household garbage was left sitting on the lawn for more than a week in warm conditions before it was cleaned up.
For neighbour Doreen Gow, the stench that wafted over her property was too much to handle.
Ms Gow decided, after putting up with what she says has been a range of issues at the property since 2004, to do something.
“We are in the process of arranging a petition for the neighbours and surrounding residents to sign,” Ms Gow said.
Most residents in the court want the house to be sold to a private buyer and be removed from the Office of Housing jurisdiction, Ms Gow says.
“We get police out here at all times of the night. We get strangers knocking on our door at all times looking for the house,” she said.
“We have had DHS (Department of Human Services) officials out here worried about the kids who were living there. It just goes on.”
Office of Housing officials recently acted by evicting the latest tenants.
A spokesman for Housing Minister Richard Wynne said the Finchley Court property was being cleaned up and would be offered to new tenants.
“The Office of Housing does require tenants to keep their properties in a neat and livable condition and we can obtain orders from Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to compel this (eviction),” he said.
“Where the Office of Housing incurs a cost in cleaning a property, the tenants are required to enter an agreement to repay the Office of Housing before they are offered another Office of Housing property.”
Almost 2000 public housing properties exist in the City of Casey, with more set to be built to accommodate the increasing housing stress being faced by residents.
“People all over Victoria and Australia are experiencing housing stress in the private rental market, as rental prices rise faster than inflation and the Commonwealth Government’s Rent Assistance program,” Richard Wynne’s spokesman said.
“We will spend an extra $500 million in extra funding for social housing over the next four years, which will add a minimum of 1550 dwellings to public housing stock over this period.”
