Does Kainga Ora have no shame?
Sub-Zero Politics writes:
I have been highlighting my Parents’ Nightmare situation on Blogs (esp The Standard) & Twitter since April 2019 & speculated right from the start that this is probably happening throughout New Zealand, including to other elderly people … really relieved that this absolute scandal is finally, finally seeing the light of day.
My Parents (aged 90 & 91) have been forced to endure 4 years of constant, prolonged violent intimidation and extreme anti-social behaviour (the latter including being very regularly kept awake until dawn, sometimes over 2 or 3 consecutive days) from the Kainga Ora tenant on the other side of their dividing-wall in a two-house Unit (My Parents have lived in their house for almost 60 years & have owned it since the 1970s).
This Nightmare situation has resulted in enforced chronic sleep deprivation over a very prolonged period (with all the associated symptoms of extreme exhaustion), severe stress & genuine fears for personal safety on a continuous basis (resulting in all the profoundly negative health consequences that inevitably follow … my Mother, usually healthy, has had to be hospitalised twice in the last 14 months, each time for a week or so, coming very close to dying on the first of these occasions & bordering on suffering a stroke on the second … & my Father, who has always been in exceptionally good health, has very recently suffered a heart attack).
No-one of any age, but especially a couple on their 90s, should have to endure four years of intimidation and harassment.
Based on my diary entires, my Parents have suffered precisely 116 – let me repeat that … 116 !!! – really large-scale explosions of violent intimidation since their neighbouring tenant arrived in late 2017. Together with several hundred mid-level, more minor & sporadic acts of violence & intimidation. The latter occur on an almost daily basis, except when he is away. This tenant has always been very violent & aggressive in his everyday behaviour, clearly a deeply-ingrained facet of his personality. Both he & his former Partner are well known to the Police & he appears to be on parole … he is loosely associated with the Mongrel Mob … but doesn’t appear to be an actual member.
Does Kainga Ora have no shame? How can they have let this continue for four years, when they could have stopped the intimidation after say the third or fourth event. They could have told the tenant that if he continues on, he will be evicted and not be allowed into a state house anywhere unless he behaves as a human being, not a thug.
In the very worst of the Major Explosions (and there have been 7 of these = out of 18), in the midst of his multi-hour intimidation, he has gone right along their fenceline, down to their letterbox & driveway, aggressively strutting back & forth straight outside their house, violently swearing & making loud threats – just the most blatant violent intimidation – interspersed with loud declarations of dominance / fighting prowess (essentially Maori Warrior-style ‘Proclaiming’) … and on 3 separate occasions he has actually rushed onto their front lawn in the middle of his explosion & vandalised their property (in one of the worst cases, for instance, smashing their concrete fence with a sledgehammer at 2am (in the midst of a very long explosion of intimidation throughout the early hours of the morning, that included violently assaulting his then girlfriend), followed by ripping my Parents’ letterbox off the fence & then throwing it onto their front lawn … all documented by Police).
I know Labour MPs read this blog. Do any of them really think a couple in their 90s should have to endure this?
Like I say, there’s One Hell of a lot more I want to say on this … including the ultimately dismissive Kainga Ora (& later Maori social housing provider) response to attempts by a range of concerned people to get this neighbour moved or evicted … 3 very good Policewomen (one of whom was a neighbour through 2018 & witnessed much of his violence), a social worker attached to my parents’ local medical centre specialising in the prevention of elder abuse, a nurse, various long-standing neighbours (who all gave evidence) & a few others.
My Parents are not only lifelong Labour voters but also long-term Party members with a long family history in the Labour Movement … they’ve been viciously betrayed by this Govt … having voted Left all my life, I swung into Non-Voting at the last Election.
There is a simple solution to this. Reverse the ban on evicting state house tenants who terrorise their neighbours and break the law. Stop prioritizing the rights of the criminals over the rights of the victims.