Kim Atkins speaks out after further crimes at housing units

A Bundaberg mother has spoken out about her concerns around a notorious public housing complex in the city, saying she fears the day she’ll have a knock on her door saying something terrible has happened.

A Bundaberg mother has spoken out after her daughter came forward this month to reveal the terrifying life inside one of the region’s public housing complexes.

Kim Atkins says she fears for her daughter’s life because of the kinds of constant criminal behaviour in their Bundaberg Central housing complex.

“Sometimes I just think, when’s it going to be that I get a knock on my door saying she’s been killed,” she said.

Ms Atkins wants to help her daughter, Samarah Davis, partner Dylan and their child Hunter, but is struggling herself due to the housing crisis and her financial situation.

Her comments come as Ms Davis revealed that the day after a report in the Bundaberg NewsMail where she shared video of a chilling home invasion, someone crept into their outdoor area at night and stole her partner’s mountain bike he bought for getting to and from work.

Bundaberg mum Kim Atkins is terrified of the risks involved with her young daughter and her family living in a notorious block of social housing units.

Captured on CCTV, the footage has been reported to police, but Ms Davis doesn’t expect to ever see the bike returned or to be compensated.

Ms Atkins said she can’t even visit her daughter because of fights, drunken behaviour and people high on drugs.

“There’s always someone there doing drug deals,” she said.

One time, Ms Atkins went to visit her daughter, only to walk back outside and find her front driver’s window had been smashed in.

It’s just too much for the family.

“I’ve been over there a few times and I’ve had people from their units walk out and they’re trying to scab something off me or they ask why I’m there,” Ms Atkins said.

“They’re all desperate for cash and they’ll do anything.”

Samarah Davis with partner Dylan and son Hunter are living in terror at their Bundaberg public housing unit.

Ms Atkins recalled several break-ins at Ms Davis’s unit and one terrifying occasion where her daughter was grabbed by the throat and held over the front railing.

“All the money they steal off Samarah they just smoke in crack,” she said.

“I just think something bigger is going to happen, because they’re doing all these little things.”

Ms Atkins, who is struggling to find her own accomodation amid the rental crisis, recently spent money on an improved security system to try and help her daughter feel a little safer, but it’s cold comfort when what she really wants is for the housing department to take action.

Ms Davis also fears the effect the surrounding lifestyle is having on her young son, who has started asking if he can paint pictures like the graffiti on the walls.

A still image captured on CCTV shows a shadowy figure taking a bicycle from Samarah Davis's property. The incident happened the day after media reports around the dangers of life in the complex.

The graffiti, the family says, started to get cleaned up after the NewsMail revealed images of swastikas and genitalia had been allowed to remain on surfaces around the housing complex.

Ms Davis revealed she did, however, receive a letter warning her for playing her music too loud, but she says the music was only loud enough to cover the screaming she hears in the complex daily.

A spokesperson from the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy responded to questions from the NewsMail earlier this month, saying the department worked with all customers to address their housing needs.

The spokesperson said most people did the right thing, and that the department takes action when needed.

The wait list for public housing remains tight, and Ms Davis says she was told her application for a transfer, which could take up to three years, had been misplaced.

Bundaberg MP Tom Smith recently took to social media to say the State Government had planned to double its housing investment fund, with 5600 homes planned across the state.

Mr Smith did not elaborate on how many of those homes would be built in the Bundaberg region, or when.