Neighbours allege drug deals, violent threats as NDIS provider Resicare seeks planning approval for Hawthorn units

Scared locals claim kids hear violent threats from their bedrooms as drugs are sold outside these NDIS units – as the operators seek to fix a planning error.

The controversial Resicare supported accommodation units in Hawthorn. Picture: Darren Chaitman

Multiple drug deals are taking place at NDIS-funded units in Adelaide’s inner-south, while young children in their bedrooms have heard screams of profanity-laden death threats from the “alarming” site, residents say.

More than 30 people last month submitted representations to a Mitcham Council panel describing their experiences living near the Resicare-supported accommodation units in the affluent suburb of Hawthorn – with some claiming their children were frightened amid regular violent shouting and police visits to the units.

Council documents say the NDIS-approved provider Resicare last year began operating at the property, which includes 22 units, without council development approval, after changing the property’s use to provide support to people with “mild to moderate mental or physical impairment”.

The provider has continued to operate after a retrospective development application was submitted to a council panel, sparking a deluge of written submissions from locals objecting to the property’s change of use and describing alleged drug deals at the site, which previously housed aged-care residents.

Resicare denied drugs were dealt on the premises and accused neighbours in the suburb of abusive behaviour towards staff and disabled residents.

The controversial Resicare-supported accommodation units in Hawthorn. Picture: Supplied

In one submission, a father living near the units said his family could “clearly hear (an) individual calling the residents from our front gate and arranging the drug deals” while his children “had to regularly listen to adult males shouting every swear word imaginable, in violent fits of rage from their own bedrooms”.

This included his child hearing a man shouting that “he’s going to beat up his neighbours”.

Other neighbours, who asked not to be named, told The Advertiser they had been approached by a man who identified himself as a Resicare resident selling “grass”, witnessed drug deals at a nearby oval that housed children's’ sporting events and saw police cars outside the units every week.

More written submissions described fights, “death cries, loud banging of objects, cries out for someone to end their lives” and “kids being approached for drugs”.

Resicare managing director Aftab Cheema said he was unable to substantiate the claims of drug deals because the neighbours were unable to provide specific dates, times and details to identify the alleged dealers.

He said no residents were dealing drugs on the premises, Resicare did not accept residents with criminal backgrounds, and the resident who shouted that he would beat up his neighbours had been removed.

Mr Cheema said Resicare had faced hostility from neighbours over recent weeks.

“Last week one of the (neighbours) actually walked in and he was verbally quite abusive, not only to management, but also to the staff and to the residents,” he said.

A Mitcham Council officer recommended approving the development because it complied with zoning regulations, ahead of a public meeting on Thursday where the matter is set to be decided.

In council documents, the officer said the panel could consider only if the application met the planning code, which did not deal with police matters or the behaviour of residents.

A spokeswoman for the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission said the commission could take serious action against NDIS providers who did not fulfil their duties under the code of conduct.

The Advertiser understands the commission is looking into concerns raised about Resicare.

Mitcham Council was contacted for further comment.

Originally published as Neighbours allege drug deals, violent threats as NDIS provider Resicare seeks planning approval for Hawthorn units