As the government prepares to demolish the Red Hill flats, an area already rife with problems is getting worse, with people ripping copper pipes from walls, removing screen doors and other fixtures, and problems with squatters, residents say.
Troy Osborn has lived at the Red Hill flats for nine years and describes it as a "hell" from which he can't wait to move. He has screwed shut a bedroom window after an attempted break-in.
Mr Osborn says the flats have never been suitable for his son whose mother hates him visiting. But things have deteriorated more in recent months as people move out. A unit above his was burned out recently by squatters and still has empty, blackened window frames. A neighbouring unit has water pouring through the walls after copper pipes were stolen.
Four of the six flats in Mr Osborn's section are now empty, and he says such is the uncertainty about when he might move that he has delayed putting up a Christmas tree.
A community services spokesperson said it had reports of several properties where copper pipe had been stolen, but the properties had now been made safe.
Housing ACT had employed a security firm which was doing random security patrols and was considering more security options as more properties became vacant. It would liaise with ACT Policing over thefts, but had not heard of any squatters.
The Red Hill Flats, built in 1960, are the first of the big blocks of inner south public housing to be demolished, with tenders to be called in January. In all, the government is moving people from 1100 flats, including flats on Cooyong Street, Northbourne Avenue, Red Hill, Griffith, Narrabundah and Woden. The tenants are being moved into much smaller groups of public housing and spread throughout the city in an approach the government calls "salt and peppering".
A walk around the Red Hill flats makes it immediately clear why lumping public housing tenants together in large concentrations is no longer in vogue. Some gardens are well-kept, with tomatoes planted, makeshift shrines in the garden, Christmas lights, and shrubs carefully sculpted. Other parts of the 144-unit complex, including Mr Osborn's section, are marred by threatening graffiti, broken glass, and overdue maintenance.
One tenant has lived in a three-bedroom townhouse for 18 years, bringing up his three children in the unit. Another moved in just four months ago, needing emergency accommodation. A third moved in earlier the year, just happy to be out of Ainslie Village, and was surprised a month later to be told the Red Hill flats were being demolished and he would have to move again.
Anne John's three children have only known the Red Hill flats, her home for 14 years, and Ms John can't wait to move on December 16 to the family's new home in Chisholm. The Chisholm home is old, but has four bedrooms, a very big back yard and is near the high school that her oldest child attends.
Ms John has enjoyed living in the Red Hill flats but recounts some dangerous times - including resuscitating a neighbour who collapsed at her door after being stabbed, sniffer dogs at the door in drug raids, a lockdown last year when a tenant was on the loose with a meat cleaver.
She is looking forward to living in a freestanding house in an ordinary suburban street where she is not part of a concentration of public housing and where her children can have their own bedrooms.
Her partner is less happy about the way they have been treated, and about the state of the flats, which he says have become a ghost town as neighbours move out and squatters move in, making it dangerous at night. He recounts one tenant found trying to steal a live gas line out, causing a gas leak. All of the tenants we speak to have the same stories of looting of copper piping and guttering, and squatters.
As for Mr Osborn, not only is he desperate to move as soon as a home is found in the right part of town, his son is also looking forward to it, hoping he will be able to ride his bike from his mum's house to his dad's.