Central Coast: Social housing properties left vacant for years as families face homelessness

Inside the social housing properties left vacant and crumbling for years as families are forced into homelessness, waiting on the priority list for accommodation. SEE THE PICTURES HERE

The vacant social housing duplex at 5-7 Faye Close, at Bateau Bay which has been left vacant for years. Picture: supplied

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Animal faeces in living rooms, rotting carpet, holes in the walls and burnt spoons used for taking heroin in bedrooms — welcome to social housing properties on the Central Coast that have been left vacant, some for up to 14 years.

It comes as some single mothers and families are being forced into homelessness as they wait on the priority list for accommodation.

Animal faeces and unidentified stains on the carpet of a social housing duplex at 5-7 Faye Close, at Bateau Bay which has been left vacant for 14 years. Picture: supplied

As of May 2020 there were 130 fewer public housing properties on the Central Coast than in 2011, with 72 of the coast’s 4435 social housing properties left vacant.

One large duplex property in Faye Close, at Bateau Bay, which has three bedrooms each, has been left vacant for 14 years with neighbours saying they have given up mowing the grass because it has been left neglected by Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Neighbours gave up mowing the front yard of the boarded up property. Picture: supplied

“The number of squatters we’ve had, rubbish, the police have had to go in there so many times to get people,” one neighbour said of the property at number 5-7 Faye Close.

“We mowed it for years because it’s a nice street but in the end we gave up.”

The Entrance State Labor MP David Mehan said in response to Questions on Notice, the government confirmed there were 130 less social housing properties than there were nine years ago.

Shopping trolleys left abandoned at the vacant social housing duplex at 5-7 Faye Close, at Bateau Bay. Picture: supplied

Fires have been lit in a shopping trolley at the vacant social housing duplex. Picture: supplied

The only Electorate where the number of social housing properties has increased in that period was Terrigal, which has seen an increase of 182 properties, up from a modest base of 378 in 2011 to 560.

Mr Mehan said since 2011 the government has sold a lot of social housing properties to private ownership “but there doesn’t seem to be enough investment”.

The kitchen of the vacant social housing duplex looks as if it has been ransacked. Picture: supplied

Creepy, the stairs have holes in the walls and carpet lifting from the treads. Picture: supplied

“They have sold off too much and the money they have made has not gone back into (social housing) in the area,” he said.

He said local constituent, Debbie, who has six children including three with special needs, has been living in a two bedroom granny flat at the back of a friend’s property.

The Entrance State Labor MP David Mehan with Debbie, a mother of six children who has been on the priority waiting list for 12 months, as properties such as the duplex behind them at 5-7 Faye Close, Bateau Bay, sits vacant. Picture: Richard Noone

She has been on the government’s priority housing list for 12 months and is essentially homeless by the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition.

“I am concerned that properties such as Faye Close remain dormant and neglected as they are desperately needed by constituents such as Debbie and her family,” Mr Mehan said.

A response has been sought from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Squatters have been sleeping the vacant social housing duplex, where burnt spoons and other evidence of drugs use was found. Picture: supplied

The garage of the vacant social housing duplex at 5-7 Faye Close, at Bateau Bay. Picture: supplied

The backyard is overgrown and has become a dumping ground for rubbish. Picture: supplied