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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-19 Daily Xml
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FASHODA STREET PROPERTY

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:36): I would like to speak about a block of flats at 38 Fashoda Street, owned by Housing SA. Four of them are leased to the Aboriginal Prisoners and Offenders Support Services, one is a multi-leasing agency housing, with the remaining three staying with Housing SA.

Tenants from 38 Fashoda Street reside there under varying programs with most of them having mental health issues and receiving in-home assistance. The residents of Fashoda Street and neighbouring streets have been subjected to the following: mail stolen from their letterboxes; what can be only described as disgusting rubbish thrown into their yards, such as soiled adult nappies; tenants from 38 Fashoda Street entering other properties and abusing the residents when asked to leave; tenants requesting money, cigarettes and food from residents and their visitors; tenants trying to break into residents' properties, resulting in residents now padlocking their gates; domestic disputes all hours of the day and night; and abusive language and screaming all hours of the day and night; regular police attendance; intoxicated tenants wandering the streets at all hours and abusing residents.

Neighbouring residents have attended the units during hours of supposed supervision, when smoke alarms have been activated and continued to sound. In one instance they found a tenant cooking meat on direct heat on the hotplate of the stove with no cooking utensil which, of course, set the smoke alarm off with the tenant being completely unaware of the situation he was in. The utensils he was missing may well have been the utensils that were thrown over the neighbouring fence by another tenant.

Authorities have advised that tenants are receiving appropriate support and supervision and assisted by coordinators. However, they are unable to advise how these activities are occurring during supervised hours. We have been told that these residents are being supervised more or less from 8 in the morning until midnight and yet there has been no evidence that the residents are supervised. When I wrote to the Minister for Mental Health about the problem her letter of reply stated:

However, it is important to remember that engaging in anti-social behaviour is not necessarily an indication of mental illness and Mental Health Services may not have a role in the issues that you have displayed.

The facts are that Mental Health Services are playing a role here and the minister is denying that there is a problem. This version of events is totally different from that of residents of the street who have described the behaviour and level of care being offered, where support staff arrive to hand out medication and leave as quickly as possible, rather than meeting their obligation to assist those people.

Living conditions in one unit are an absolute disgrace, and I can verify that because I have seen it first-hand. On one of my Meals on Wheels runs I knocked on the door to deliver the midday meal and when the door opened I was hit by the smell of cat urine. There were dozens of cats inside the flat and the floor was wet with cat urine. The person living there had a mental health disability but had been left to live there by the authorities. This is government housing, supposedly being cared for by government carers and, yet, the person was living in these conditions. I actually had to deliver the meal and move on as quickly as possible, because of the overbearing smell coming from the apartment.

I have written to minister Weatherill who, I am pleased to say, is considering attending the public meeting I have convened for residents and police to try to address this matter. I have been involved in this process for close on six months now, trying to get a resolution, and I have been forced to this only because we have not been able to get a resolution any other way. Residents are now fearful for their own and their family's safety; they consider it unsafe to walk down the street or have visitors, and they lock up their premises like fortresses.

Calling police is not always effective because by the time they arrive the situation has often been resolved by residents themselves. They are so desperate they are dealing with the situation themselves. Residents have independently written to the Department of Health but have received no response. Quite frankly, they have had enough.

Time expired.

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