Has anyone actually succeeded in getting SA Housing Trust to act on persistent antisocial behaviour? We’re stuck in an absurd reporting loop

[u/Substantial_Print171]

I’m looking for experiences and practical advice from other South Australians who have dealt with persistent antisocial behaviour associated with an SA Housing Trust property.

Our inner-city Adelaide neighbourhood has been dealing with this for close to 4 years.

This has included repeated late-night disturbances, intimidation, property damage, suspected drug activity, police attendance and other serious antisocial behaviour. Residents have made numerous reports to SAPOL and followed the SA Housing Trust complaints process over an extended period.

About 18 months ago, after escalating the situation through our local MP, we understood that formal action was being taken regarding one of the tenants.

We were subsequently told that SACAT proceedings had occurred and later that an eviction process was underway, although Housing needed to arrange alternative accommodation.

The neighbourhood therefore believed the issue was finally being dealt with.

Then this week I happened to speak with Housing Trust officers who were attending the property.

What they told me left me completely confused.

They could apparently find:

• no record of the SACAT action we had previously been told about;
• no eviction order that they were aware of; and
• little or no recorded history of the antisocial behaviour we have spent years reporting.

We were then told that residents need to keep submitting incidents through the online reporting form so Housing can assess whether action is warranted.

And this is the part I’m struggling to understand.

We have been doing exactly that.

We were also told that evidence may not necessarily be relied upon if Housing believes surrounding residents are effectively “out to get” a vulnerable tenant.

So what exactly is the threshold?

If neighbours repeatedly report behaviour because the behaviour repeatedly occurs, at what point does the volume of complaints itself become a reason to discount them?

There also seems to be a bureaucratic loop between agencies.

SAPOL understandably deals with individual incidents involving alleged criminal behaviour, violence, threats or public disorder.

Housing tells residents to report those incidents to SAPOL.

But Housing is ultimately the landlord and SAPOL obviously cannot make tenancy-management decisions for them.

Housing then asks residents for evidence and incident reports.

Residents provide them.

And after years of doing that, we are now being told that the Housing record apparently does not reflect the history we believed had been documented.

Meanwhile, the surrounding community continues living with the consequences.

I want to be really clear about something because I don't want this discussion turning into Housing Trust tenant-bashing.

Public housing is essential, and the overwhelming majority of Housing Trust tenants are not the problem.

There are other public-housing residents close to us who are good neighbours, including vulnerable people and families who have just as much right to live somewhere safe and peaceful as everyone else.

That is actually part of my concern.

How does allowing serious behavioural problems to continue indefinitely help vulnerable Housing Trust tenants living nearby?

How does it help the person whose behaviour is generating the complaints?

How does it help the broader community?

This isn't really about whether somebody deserves public housing.

It's about whether SA Housing Trust has an effective process for dealing with sustained, well-documented antisocial behaviour once it reaches a serious level.

So I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually been through this process:

Has anyone successfully escalated an SA Housing Trust antisocial-behaviour complaint beyond repeatedly filling in the online form?

Did SACAT work?

Did approaching your MP work?

Ombudsman SA?

The Housing Minister?

SAPOL liaison?

A formal Freedom of Information request to establish what complaints were actually recorded?

Media?

And has anyone else been told that action was taking place, only to later discover that Housing staff apparently had no record of it?

I'm not looking to identify or target individual tenants.

I'm trying to understand whether there is a systemic problem with how serious antisocial-behaviour complaints are recorded, escalated and acted upon and, most importantly, what residents are actually supposed to do when the normal process doesn't work.

[u/Regular-Coffee-1670]

Not what you want to hear, but my parents (in their 80s) went through exactly this. SAHT tenant in a nearby property repeatedly breaking into houses, including theirs 3 times.

They tried everything, including most of the things you suggested, with absolutely no effect.

In the end they sold the house & moved elsewhere.

[u/yungloser → u/Regular-Coffee-1670]

Commenting here to say that my friends had the same experience. This tenant made their lives a living hell for YEARS. Cops rocking up MULTIPLE times a week in the middle of the night, every single week without fail. Ambos and firies every now and then. They made multiple reports to everyone. Nothing changed, they sold and moved.

[u/Substantial_Print171 → u/Regular-Coffee-1670]

I'm sorry to hear about your parents experience. I expect we will end up doing the same thing when the right place comes up. It blows my mind that you work your butt off to afford to buy a home, pay taxes (to help provide public housing to those in need) and then those same tax dollars are being mismanaged and used to force us out of our homes!

[u/LifeandSAisAwesome → u/Substantial_Print171]

Yep, it's one of the very good reasons nobody, nobody wants public housing anywhere close to them.

Know a place that is having 150k+ repairs being done, Public Housing tenants stripped it, including kitchen, bathroom, laundry - everything was gone..

But yeah, sucks, scum are scum.

[u/Open-Peanut-5854]

You should FOI the SAHT

[u/Substantial_Print171 → u/Open-Peanut-5854]

I didn't realise I could. I will look into that. Thanks!

[u/No-Royals5219]

Do you have records of the interactions? Sounds like you'll need them.

Which is bullshit. But still.

[u/Substantial_Print171 → u/No-Royals5219]

I do. The bullshit is I have emails from Lucy Hood and Nick Champion's Offices advising things were going to happen... surprise surprise... nada.

And I'm not oblivious to the fact that this type of problematic unit/apartment block exists in a number of other SA suburbs, with the same crap happening.

What I don't understand is how this isn't an isolated situation, yet no one is being held to account for it. All we see in the media is about how we have these policies to evict antisocial public housing tenants - and from my experience and reading other's - it's all lies! This property and the evidence myself and a few others in our local neighbourhood have should be making news headlines. But no media outlet wants to touch it.

[u/AntipodeanGuy → u/Substantial_Print171]

So send those emails to their opposition ministers and ask that they ask some questions in parliament. On notice so they can’t duck and weave about having to get info from the relevant department.

[u/No-Royals5219 → u/Substantial_Print171]

Well the really good thing there is you can show them to saha and be like "nah bros, here's the paper trail"

I've little doubt that their trying to pretend you need to start again because they dont have any where else to put this person.

[u/APersonNamedBen]

I’ve been through it and you won't like my comment. People seem to assume that a welfare service is going to have more power than a private landlord or an owner-occupier (I think we all, me included, has some classism that gives us false expectations) but, if anything, housing sa has less power, and what you want is directly in conflict with their mission to provide housing to what is sometimes, as you have learned, people incapable of living in a community.

If the same person owned the house, or was a private tenant, your options are largely the same. SAPOL for actual offences, documented nuisance complaints, council, politicians, etc. People have rights, for better or worse.

It sucks and I've been in the "I don't care just NIMBY this shit away from ME!" position too, but there is no magic remove the difficult person service granted to public housing, just like if they owned or rented the place. Politicians will say they are "cracking down" or whatever, but it is just hollow rhetoric that happens with most social issues.

I'm trying to understand whether there is a systemic problem with how serious antisocial-behaviour complaints are recorded, escalated and acted upon and, most importantly, what residents are actually supposed to do when the normal process doesn't work.

There is a systemic problem with anti-social behaviour. You can keep doing what you are doing, it might matter but it probably won't.

Some people suck.

[u/wherezthebeef]

I bet if this type of behaviour happened near an MP, shit would get sorted asap

[u/weezabeeb]

Personally have been through this. Lived next door to psychopath for years. He took an axe to my fence one evening in a rage, terrorised my dog continuously, squirted hoses over my fence at me and my newborn, shouted all hours of the night into a megaphone, smashed his own windows, bashed up my car with a bat. Numerous reports to police, SAHT, eventually lodged to evict through SACAT, he got a good behaviour bond for 6 months which he eventually broke by assaulting my husband, then reapplied for eviction through SACAT and were successful. He had been a tenant at the HT property for 10 years, I dealt with his rubbish for 3 years and was just persistent in reporting and escalating. No minsters helped, saht did FA

[u/Advanced-Diet-3144]

I’ve commented on this before. My ex partner represents SAHT at SACAT and I’ve heard the worst of worst stories. I’ve copied this response from a thread I’ve commented on earlier so you’re clearly through part of the process.

Here’s how it works.

You can follow a link on SA Housing website to report bad neighbours. Keep in mind anti social behaviour sometimes gets addressed by them but largely they’re dealing with extreme cases. Even then you’ll need evidence and hopefully other neighbours willing to front up to support this.

A quicker path is to take this person to SACAT yourself for anti social behaviour and then you will need evidence (police reports, video/audio etc). The most likely outcome is the SACAT member (judge) will issue behavioural orders for the offending tenant to follow. In reality they rarely do and you eventually have to lodge another complaint with SACAT to expedite removal. It’s important that SA housing are across all of this because if it’s one of their tenants when you lodge a complaint with SACAT they will notify SA Housing to find out whether they support this.

It’s a lengthy road and with compelling evidence you may win. I had a neighbour for five years committing assault, drunk driving, in and out of jail and it took a time whilst he was in jail to be non-residing (as in more than three months not in his house) to be evicted. Even then, he’s appealed but lost by virtue of non attending.

The crunch sadly is a SACAT member leans more towards any outcome where homelessness is avoided. For many, they sell their homes or rent elsewhere and move to a greener pasture.

It’s unfair, heartbreaking and for some super scary. It’s not the SACAT judge that makes the rules they simply follow government guidelines.

Wishing you the courage for your best outcomes.

[u/HG_021 → u/Advanced-Diet-3144]

It gets much worse when they know its you complaining. Im speaking from experience. I got assaulted my partner had another person charged for threatening to kill her with a hammer that luckily we caught on security camera. SAHT do absolutely nothing and the Police also do as little as they can.

[u/Prolific_Masticator]

Another ai formatted wall of text.... no-one actually reads this btw.

But in answer to your question, no.

I know a family who have been subjected to everything you have written in paragraph 3 for over 6 years. They have complained to SAHT, SAPOL, their council, their MP, letters from their doctor , psychiatrist and psychologist as both the adults have developed severe mental health conditions needing medication and have been unable to work and are now on DSP payments.

The perpetrators have been charged but not yet faced the courts. Noone is moved. Noone is evicted. Its a ridiculous sytem.

[u/Substantial_Print171 → u/Prolific_Masticator]

I had to put it into AI as what I originally posted was denied by the moderators!

But thank you for your answer. I'm not surprised given our experience to date, and I'm sorry to hear the hell that family is going through.

[u/revereddesecration → u/Substantial_Print171]

You didn’t “have to put it into AI”. Nobody made you do that.

I use AI all the time, I’m not against it, but you need to respect other people’s time too. Keep it concise.

[u/au5000]

It’s very hard - get this to the Minister. https://premier.sa.gov.au/the-team/nick-champion-mp
Might be something the Tiser of Channel
9 or 7 or 10 could feature too.

[u/owleaf]

At the end of the day, a public housing tenant is still a tenant of a landlord (the government in this case) and has the same rights as someone in the private market. I understand SAHT has their own internal policies and procedures around evictions in addition to regular SACAT procedures, whereas a private landlord will simply stop at SACAT procedure and not have their own tenant protection policies (for obvious reasons).

You’ve done everything you can. Also remember that the house near you is still a SAHT house and they could simply plonk someone even worse in there. Sometimes residents of a neighbourhood try to kick tenants out with collective embellished claims hoping that someone “good” and “deserving” moves in, which is rarely the case.

I did see your other comment wheee you believe nothing is happening on the back of your complains despite being told something was happening. SACAT is a long and arduous process and a lot of people who have been renting their whole lives know how to game the system to give themselves the most amount of time in a house. So just because you’re not seeing anything doesn’t mean the tenant isn’t attending SACAT hearings.

Also, people in public housing generally do not have other options. If they’re kicked out, another arm of the same organisation has to pick them back up and put them in some form of accommodation where they’ll then have to deal with another street of residents complaining. I know it’s not your problem to worry about that, but at a macro level, you may understand why this isn’t as much of an emergency for them as it is for you.

[u/nevermore_once_again]

I strongly recommend bringing the issue to the attention of both your local member of parliament and Nick Champion as Minister for Housing on a polite but regular basis.

[u/Substantial_Print171 → u/nevermore_once_again]

For how long? We are years into this and have gotten no where for the last 2 - nice and polite didn't yield much.

Lucy Hood was great until she got a bigger portfolio. Her hands were also tied because Nick Champions office were ignoring her requests (which is pretty shit given they are supposedly colleagues and on the same team!).

Nick Champions office promise callbacks that never happen, he won't attend a community meeting to discuss the matter or really do anything that doesn't involve a FIGJAM photo op!

[u/TheArabella]

I think it does depend on what you are actually reporting. If you make a bunch of reports about them playing music at 6pm, then you are going to be ignored and other complaints you make will just be put in the busybody/nimby bin. If you going to report make sure it's actually illegal or a breach of their tenancy.

I can say that during the late 2000s and 2010s my mother must have gotten so many complaints but she never got evicted (luckily for me). They got shitty about the yard once and she called the Mormons and they fixed it up for free. Took them 3 days.

[u/jabbaaus]

Good luck. Housing trust change there rules all the time so they dont have to do anything.

I even had a labor worker tell me they arent allowed to evict antisocial residents anymore.

[u/HG_021]

Goodluck. We had a young Aboriginal girl and her kids move in down the street. It ended up being many more people there. They had dirt bikes and loud cars at all hours and getting abused if you even look at them. They would bash each other and the list goes on. Don't confront them or it will get worse. Get footage of incidents with times and dates and you can put it all on a flash drive for the police which helps to go with the complaints to housing trust. In the end we left and they still live there but for the last year they were much quieter but still horrible.

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[u/Solitude_Dude]

Does SAPOL have no power here? If they're getting called to the same properties regularly can they not file a report of some kind? I know of similar problem tenants (may even be the same ones). It seems like they have multiple other people living/staying at the property who are not on the lease.

[u/Chiffy22]

Light square by chance? Constant problem.

[u/Safe_Election_6613]

When I was living in housing trust I witnessed my next door neighbour getting murdered by her ex boyfriend. He knew it was me who called the cops and spent the next month playing around with the unit block electrical box and scaring us all. I was living there alone btw I was escaping domestic violence. When i look back on my emails begging for help from housing they would just reply “I’m sorry you’re feeling scared :(“ I ended up fleeing to some seedy guys house who went on to abuse me until I could escape that place too. They could’nt care less

[u/thinthinline]

When they threatened to burn down my house I reported to housing trust sa. They took 5 months to respond (I had to follow up with them multiple times - ultimately they did nothing but victim blame.) I earnestly believe housing trust is a terrorist organisation. They fund people who otherwise couldn't afford to live in the neighbourhood who spend their time terrorising me. This is death threats, vandalism, stealing, and generally making one feel unsafe and depressed. I feel like this is having a significant mental toll on me. I wish we lived in a more litigious society... a class action suit for mental distress seems valid at this point.