Local concern as drug users run amok in North Richmond housing estate

DISTURBING new footage shows the violent fights and squalid conditions residents already face in a North Richmond housing estate, as locals desperately try to stop a controversial injection room.

TERRIFIED residents have called for a meeting with the Andrews Government in a last-ditch attempt to block a controversial injection room set to open next month.

Families living in North Richmond Housing Estate say they have been ignored, despite detailing a litany of security breaches and complaints to the Department of Housing and Human Services.

It comes as the Herald Sun can reveal disturbing new footage and images showing the squalid conditions residents are faced with inside the Elizabeth St housing block.

Long-term resident Sonia, who did not want her surname published, said she had written letters to Premier Daniel Andrews and Housing Minister Martin Foley but none had been answered.

ICE TO BE ALLOWED INSIDE NORTH RICHMOND INJECTING ROOMS

INJECTING ROOM IDENTIFICATION CHECK BASED ON ‘HONESTY POLICY’

SAFE DRUG INJECTING ROOM TRIAL IN MELBOURNE’S INNER NORTH

A man appears to shoot up at the housing estate. Picture: Alex Coppel.

She is among several residents who said they feared ­violence and crime would increase once the government’s supervised injecting room — which will now allow ice — was opened metres away.

The government yesterday denied suggestions it was set to ramp up security at the ­neighbouring primary school, despite a well-placed source telling the Herald Sun a guard would be at the school gate.

It’s understood Richmond West Primary School had been offered extra resources if it wished, but the offer had not been taken up.

The school, which teaches about 300 children, does not have any CCTV cameras ­installed.

However, cameras have been installed on the streets near the injecting room.

More than 500 students attend schools less than 1km away from the controversial injecting room. Three schools are within a short walking distance from the new centre, which is set to open within weeks.

SAFE DRUG INJECTING ROOM MELBOURNE TRIAL

SCHOOLYARD SECURITY WANTED NEAR NORTH RICHMOND SUPERVISED DRUG-INJECTION ROOM

Syringes discarded in North Richmond Housing Estate. Picture: Supplied

“It’s just inviting people from all over the city to come here and shoot up in our backyard,” local resident Sonia said.

“They’re doorknocking people who live five streets away to ask their opinion,

“But we’re the ones that are going to be most affected and we’re being ignored.”

Video and images captured at the Elizabeth St block shows fire hydrants and electrical cupboards are used to stash dozens of needles while the private carpark has become a hotbed of dealing.

Nicole, who also wanted her surname withheld, has lived in the building for 22 years with her daughter and said the response to her complaints had been “degrading”.

“We’re treated like we’re worthless because we live in public housing,” she said.

“I thought we had time to stop it … but now we’re told there’s nothing to be done except to vote in November.”

Both women agree a safe injecting room is needed to help save lives, but don’t believe it should be in a residential area or so close to a school.

Opposition mental health spokesman Emma Kealy said the government’s consultation process “has been exposed as a complete sham”.

But Mr Foley said the injecting room would help make the housing block safer, and residents had been invited to several information sessions.

“We’ve listened to the experts … and families exposed to the trauma and the heartbreak of addiction, and we won’t waste a minute getting it up and running,” he said.

INSIDE GROUND ZERO

BLOODIED syringes, soiled clothing and violent fights are daily realities faced by terrified residents of a housing estate at the epicentre of the Melbourne’s illicit drug trade.

Disturbing footage obtained by the Herald Sun reveals the squalid conditions inside the North Richmond Housing Estate as families living in the building plead with the government for help.

Residents of the Elizabeth St estate say their homes have been terrorised by drug addicts who regularly:

BREAK into the building to “shoot up” and buy drugs

STASH their needles and ice pipes in fire cupboards or littered across the private carpark

PASS out in the lift lobby or on their doorsteps

Teenage girls have been groped and slapped as they attempt to walk past large groups of drug-affected men in the stairwells, and common areas such as the laundry have become a no-go zone.

A man appears to inject into his foot outside someone else’s flat, with cash and needles by his side Picture: Alex Coppel.

The Herald Sun witnessed a shoeless man slumped outside a flat surrounded by wads of cash and a discarded syringe.

A resident explained the man was a known dealer in the building and often “shot up into his foot” on his mother’s doorstep if she locked him out.

Several residents say they have witnessed the building’s concierge unlocking security doors to allow drug users to enter and say security guards are slow to respond or “blatantly ignore” calls for help.

Nicole and her daughter have lived in the 108 block for more than two decades.

She said she has resorted to recording all her interactions with security and drug users, but still “no one cared enough to listen”.

“I don’t drink or do drugs and I’ve never been in trouble with the law, but we’re all painted with the same brush because we live in public housing,” she said.

“The junkies are given more rights then we are.”

Man passed out in the estate car park.

Needles and drug packaging dumped in a fire hydrant. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Fellow resident Sonia said she has watched her neighbourhood “taken over and destroyed”. She recalled times when her two children were too terrified to walk the short distance to Richmond West Primary.

“Some days we’d have junkies passed out on our doorstep and the kids couldn’t leave to go to school,” she said.

“No child should have to witness this.”

Sonia and Nicole said they understood that a safe injecting room was needed to help tackle the drug scourge and save lives but keep asking “why here?”
“Why does my family have to live next door to it,” she said.

“No one will answer that.”

[e-mail]

@GenevieveAlison