The notorious Plaza Palms housing complex will be shut down today
Concerns have been triggered that residents moved on from the notorious Plaza Palms housing complex at Manunda could soon pose a problem for other areas of the city.
Cairns
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CONCERNS have been triggered that residents moved on from the notorious Plaza Palms housing complex at Manunda could soon pose a problem for other areas of the city.
The Cairns Post understands only a handful of people are still living at the McLachlan St site, which closes today.
Residential and business neighbours have long complained about the unit complex, known for being a hotbed of crime and violent, anti-social behaviour.
News of the closure came after the site’s body corporate failed to secure public indemnity insurance for its overcrowded, vandalised and unsafe dwellings.
The shutdown followed a lengthy campaign waged by residents and businesses and state and federal MPs to close the complex, described as a “slum” and a “war zone”.
It’s understood the bulk of tenants have been relocated by the Department of Housing. But two community leaders have raised fears that the problem could potentially be transferred from one part of town to another.
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Mayor Bob Manning said the closure of the “nasty bit of work” was a good result for neighbouring residents and businesses who had “been to hell and back in terms of vandalism and crime”.
“People shouldn’t have been living there in the first place,” he said.
“This sort of thing doesn’t go away, it has to be fixed by transferring people into a different level of accommodation … not just transplanting the problem somewhere else in the city.”
A previous push to get overcrowded residents out of the individually-owned units was blocked after some landlords refused to sell.
But in April the consortium of 27 landlords was finally forced to act after failing to secure insurance for the property following an avalanche of claims resulting from damage inflicted on the property by unruly residents.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch had long called for the dilapidated buildings to be demolished and called the closure “a great result”.
“But we have to be very mindful of not moving the problem from one point to another,” he said.
A Department of Housing spokesman said the body was “working to ensure residents are able to find an alternative place to stay”.
Cairns MP Michael Healy said a number of former residents intended to return north to Cape Communities, which would not be possible until the lifting of a Federal biosecurity lockout.
However he said the closure was well overdue.
“I have been working to get that place closed down since the day I got this job,” he said.
Originally published as The notorious Plaza Palms housing complex will be shut down today