An intervention scheme for antisocial behaviour in government housing will be extended by three months after early positive results.
Housing and Works Minister Troy Buswell said the pilot scheme, which began in June 2009, provides specialised support to highly disruptive or antisocial social tenants to end cycles of poor behaviour.
“We’ve seen remarkable turnaround from the majority of people involved in this pilot including tenants who were almost facing eviction and neighbours who were at their wits end in having to deal with them,” Mr Buswell said.
“Protecting the safety and welfare of all social housing tenants while trying to ensure that disruptive tenants don’t end up on the street is a major challenge.
“This pilot scheme has had very encouraging results and I will consider expanding it further in the new year.”
The Antisocial Behaviour Intervention Team identified 16 social housing tenants in metropolitan Perth who had been at the centre of ongoing or escalating disruptive behaviour to participate in the pilot program.
Individual case workers were allocated to each case and met with the tenants, their families and neighbours to identify underlying issues contributing to the poor behaviour and outline the consequences if it continued.
Tenants were referred to support services and visited by the same case workers at least once a week for about six weeks. During this time, the team monitored the tenant’s behaviour, their engagement with support services and met with the neighbouring tenants.
14 tenants finished the program while two failed to engage and were evicted.
Only two tenants have generated complaints since finishing the pilot and neighbours have reported being ‘generally satisfied’ since the intervention team’s involvement.
The scheme will be extended for three months across summer - the traditional peak for disruptive behaviour - through to January 2010.
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CASE STUDY:
Tenant ‘Jane’ was referred to the pilot after being the subject of numerous complaints. After a meeting with her case worker, it emerged that Jane had family and financial issues a history of doctor shopping to support her prescription drug dependency.
Case worker referred her to family support service and to mental health service for drug dependence support. Meeting also arranged with Centrelink to discuss income management strategies to reduce financial stress. Intervention identified that two family members were staying at the tenants home causing over-crowding and contributing to the poor behaviour.
Support provided to tenant to move them out of the dwelling. Neighbours report being satisfied with the changes in the tenancy. No further complaints received.