Havelock House to close?

If havelock is closed then I can see the site presenting a tasty redevelopment profit

As a former resident of Havelock Mansions, I’d not be sorry to see a staged public implosion (sorry, couln’t help it).

However, that sentiment is not solely due to the negative side of life in Havelock.

Sure, the junkies living above (and their clients, since one was also a dealer) were a constant nightmare: banging on the doors looking to score at all hours, fights where furniture was thrown around, through windeos, and constant screaming, not to mention the apparently knee-deep garbage throught the apartment when they were finally evicted.

Sure, the drug use and general anti-social beahviour was rife.

Sure, in the apartment I lived in with (generally) students the hygeine level was so poor as to make the average share house look like a freshly scrubbed and disinfected hospital ward.

But the main gripe I have with Havelock now is how easy it is to rort the system (this goes for a lot of the low income houseing schemes available in Canberra too). I am not without blame in this, but when I moved in I genuinely did need the low cost housing. Then I got a real job or three, straightened out my life and got the hell out of Havelock. But some of the people I used to live with are still there, on good money but not declaring it, and taking seriouos advantage of the place. It’s a scam and a half and needs sorting out so the low cost housing can be given to people who really deserve it.

Jey is right about the communal areas, they were generally clean. It was some of the individual tenants who brought the place down, not the running of the place as a whole.

gee sounds like it’s got much worse

I understand that the management (who also took over management of Ainsley Village a few months back) are being very tight-lipped about the stories going around, but people there believe it will close within a couple of months.
Residents with flash BMWs and questionable income streams, drunken parties upstairs from early in the morning almost daily, intimidation of staff and pedestrians…ad nauseum.
Don’t blame the government for this one JB – blame the boss there.

When I was there the communal areas were cleaned regularly and well. It was the individual units that were bad, which is the joint responsibility of the residents of each unit. When a bunch of strangers of the best ‘breeding’ move in together cleaning is a problem, so, when you have a bunch of ‘less than desirable’ beings, well…

hmm, let it go to the dogs and then close it.

does that sound like the stanhope government to you?

the place doesn’t get cleaned..the occassions I visited my mate, there was rubbish everywhere.. all throughout the halls – it stank.. the toilets hadn’t been cleaned in months and were choccas full of shit (literally) and a syringe or two.. The facilities rooms were trashed.

The speed freaks that lived upstairs were fairly intimidating as well.

A good reference point would be trainspotting.

Unemployed ppl localised aren’t a problem either, but when you combine things like too much spare time and the easy availability of drugs.

Perhaps Havelock admin should try and be stricter on who they accept as tenants, though those who really need it wouldn’t get help and that doesn’t address the problem with current tenants.

Toastie, I haven’t been near Havelock for a number of years, but in my past experience there was a dominant culture of drugs, parties and the unemployed.
Parties aren’t so bad unless you get the odd down on their luck student in there who’s still trying hard to study.

Sorry…AD…