SA Housing Trust home provided to a 74-year-old Suzanne Hudson contaminated with meth

A 74-year-old woman is unable to sleep in her bedroom after it was found her SA Housing Trust home is contaminated – with the government failing to clean or relocate her.

Suzanne Hudson was provided with a new home by the SA Housing Trust contaminated with meth. Picture: Matt Loxton

A 74-year-old woman is sick with weeping sores and unable to sleep in her bedroom because her SA Housing Trust (SAHT) house is contaminated with meth – but the government has failed to clean or relocate her despite an independent report a year ago.

The report, seen by The Advertiser and conducted by HSE Australia in January 2024, warns of “danger” to the inhabitants of the home because of unsafe levels of drug residue in Suzanne Hudson’s West Beach public housing home.

Eight months after this report, she remains in the property with no furniture, her body covered in weeping sores, pumping up her air mattress in the middle of the night on the lounge room floor.

A report, seen by The Advertiser and conducted by HSE Australia, warns of “danger” to the inhabitants of the home because of unsafe levels of drug residue. Picture: Matt Loxton

Ms Hudson has described the stress of having to sleep on an air-mattress in the loungeroom for the past year – with only a camp fridge and a camp chair in the house – after occupational hygienists issued a stern warning to SAHT about furniture being “easily contaminated” because of the meth in the walls.

Ms Hudson, who is also washing her clothes in a bucket, said that she is worried about her furniture becoming ruined by the meth – and that SAHT has specifically told her it will not compensate her for any property damage.

“Deep down I have a feeling of disbelief that they did this so many times,” Ms Hudson said.

“I can’t sleep. I feel alone. I’m in pain. I feel so worthless,” she said, as her voice quivered and then broke from the stress

She said she felt SAHT was acting “above the law” and that the soil at her new property also contains “barbed wire and broken glass.” She added she was “frightened” for her and her dog’s health.

Ms Hudson said “she has not really been living” since moving into the house.

The HSE report into the West Beach property, commissioned by SAHT, came after Ms Hudson moved into the property in January 2024 but soon began to feel sick and noticed a strange odour.

She then found a meth pipe and a syringe in the garden.

Ms Hudson said when she first moved into the property, a SAHT housing officer told her the property was inhabited by an “old woman who grew beautiful flowers” but when she moved in neighbours told her it was a known “drug house” that was frequently raided by the police.

Ms Hudson wore a hazmat suit to enter her previous Campbelltown home that was contaminated by black mould. Picture: Supplied

“There is danger to individuals in staying non-remediated property” the NSE report said, listing a wide range of conditions from sleeplessness to weight loss to skin irritation that can arise from non-remediated meth-contaminated properties.

Ms Hudson explained that SAHT offered to remediate the property but with an unqualified cleaner.

It offered for the cleaner to come to the house in a hazmat suit and a respirator but said it would not move her out of the property during the clean.

Ms Hudson said she wanted to be permanently relocated.

A second report completed in April 2024 by Edwards Toxicology Consulting, confirmed the property was still contaminated with meth.

It suggests that “it may be considered negligent of Housing SA to continue to house her under (those) conditions”.

Ms Hudson’s Campbelltown home, also provided by Housing SA, that was contaminated with black mould. Picture: Supplied

Previously, Ms Hudson spent six and a half years in another SAHT property in Campbelltown with severe toxic black mould.

Documents seen by The Advertiser show the mould had gone through the entire roof cavity.

In a statement, a SAHT spokeswoman said: “The SA Housing Trust is committed to maintaining homes that are safe and comfortable for all tenants. It is not acceptable for any home to be contaminated with drugs.

“The SA Housing Trust is working closely with Ms Hudson and her family, and has met with them to discuss options, including relocation.”

A spokesman from the office of Housing and Urban Development Minister Nick Champion

said SAHT had “offered [Ms Hudson] many relocation options however she hadn’t accepted them.”

But Ms Hudson claims relocation options were not discussed until after the Advertiser contacted SAHT about her situation on Thursday January 2, 2025.

She said on Friday January 3, 2025 some relocation options were discussed, but no formal offers were made.

The Advertiser asked Mr Champion’s office for further evidence of the offers but were

referred back to SAHT.

SAHT said they were unable to provide any evidence of the “many” relocation offers.

Both the SAHT and Mr Champion’s office did not respond to questions about why Ms Hudson had to wait at least 11 months after the HSE report for emergency accomodation.

Originally published as SA Housing Trust home provided to a 74-year-old Suzanne Hudson contaminated with meth