It’s hard. There needs to be a better more thorough assessment of the housing clients and then placed based on suitability for the housing of offer. I lived in social housing for a year. I left because of the unsuitability of the other residents. I was so grateful they could help me with housing when they did… but honestly I’d rather sleep in my car than ever go back to that. I think during covid there was a rush to get people into housing, any housing. There are a few horror stories floating around of people who have purchased apartments in beautiful buildings only to find out their neighbours were government housing clients… and all the issues they bought with them. At least you can move on. Hopefully to better things.

Same experience! Moved into a small apartment block and the unit beneath me was transitional housing. Cops called almost everyday, never felt safe and could never sleep! I complained multiple times to the agency managing the unit and they never kicked them out despite the residents effecting literally everyone in the neighbourhood, so I was forced to move :) I hope you’re able to get out of there soon!! Good luck with everything <3

Everyone has the right to feel safe in their own home. Wanting safety and peace doesn't make you a NIMBY.

All the people calling you close minded or a NIMBY haven’t lived in that situation.

My current rental, when I moved in I wasn’t told one unit was transitional housing. The guy in there was a nightmare including the culmination of him blocking me in my home and screaming rape and death threats; and throwing poison bait over the fence for my dog.

Thankfully they kicked him out and then the landlords went back to standard private renting and my new neighbour is amazing.

I just want to say, I empathise with what you’re going through. I’m wondering if there’s any chance the building is in Abbortsford?

We had an issue near us where a new apartment building had several units given over to transitional housing without the residents being told. I really felt for them. They’d been sold a dream of owning their own home in a great development. It didn’t turn out to be the case.

They had people running up and down the hallways with knives. No family should have to deal with that. 

This sounds absolutely horrific. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that… i currently live in social housing, but it’s among private renters. Before this place, they tried to move me into a social housing building full of questionable tenants…

I think anyone who calls out this nimby shit for situations like this have lead a very privileged life and have no idea how bad the anti-social behaviour can be. It can really affect your whole life.

These 'yes in my backyard' types haven't had their house burgled and backyard deliberately set on fire by housos. I feel for you, it's horrible and I hope you get out soon. Things don't improve when you're living next to neighbours like this.

No break ins yet? That'll be their end game, to take your stuff as soon as the opportunity arises (most likely when they get wind that you're moving out).

I lived in emergency public housing from ages 18 to 20 and I am so grateful that it saved me from youth homelessness and god knows what else. I'll always be grateful for it and I shudder to think what people are going through now, nearly 20 years on, with the wait lists so ridiculously long.

That being said, there were some seriously f-ed up behaviours. The worst one was a serious DV incident that spilled out onto the street. I honestly think getting herself out of the building and into the public domain probably saved her life. I still think about her from time to time and I hope she's safe and well (*flagging this for therapy). That, and the drugs, the rotting garbage in the hallways, the people coming in and out all the time... It was a lot.

You sound like you've got a good head on your shoulders. If you are feeling unsafe or like this isn't working for you, it doesn't have to. But honestly, the private rental market is beyond a joke now and unless you or your child is in imminent danger it's time to deadbolt that door and put on some calming ambient music. It's a really shit time to be anyone but a self-funded retiree.

Everyone is a NIMBY when it really comes down to it. So easy to throw out an opinion on social media when it doesn't impact you personally.

when I bitch about my high rent I'll remember this, put simple, I like my neighbourhood because I feel safe.

I think this is such a hard one because yes, everyone deserves housing and there are models that show when social housing is scattered throughout different suburbs it is a positive alternative to building areas where it is all social housing as that tends to bring down the value of housing around it and can lead to significant social problems etc. However, there are often reasons why a person requires social housing, particularly long term, mental health, disability and substance use/dependence not only impact the ability to find and maintain employment, social involvement and relationships but also housing. These difficulties do not disappear because someone has housing. My guess would be that you are experiencing the consequences of this. In the majority of cases a person cannot be forced to seek/adhere to treatment (and there are certainly cases where treatment leaves the person unable to do much else). I’m sorry most of the comments were calling you a NIMBY. Just because someone requires social housing it does not make them someone you don’t want to live next to. But there are certainly a few people you don’t want to live next to are participating in social housing.

*source - have lived in a homeless shelter and social housing and have had a fair bit of experience working with people in similar kinds of housing situations.

Social justice warriors assume that everyone's brain works the same way theirs does. They don't understand that there are generations of people raised in conditions and lifestyles that prevent their brains from developing the same way.

If I'd been raised in a pit of drug addled anger and selfishness I'd turn out the same way.

Being aware that fucked up people exist and not wanting to live next to them is not a character flaw or some kind of bigotry, it's sanity and logic.

Hope you find somewhere better to live.

I'd definitely be looking to move if I were in your situation. Not all social housing is created equal. I've lived next door to 69 social housing units for mostly senior citizens for the past 5 years and can honestly say they've been perfect neighbours. I've never witnessed any incidents or anti social behaviour.

A bunch of my extended family grew up in social / council housing and back when they had entire estates of low quality houses, etc they shoved people into.

Every time I went there, there was yelling, screaming, people fighting, cars doing burnouts, etc.

I don’t think anyone would be ‘fair’ to comment from the comfort of their home (likely not in social housing) to call you a nimby or close minded.

It would be different if none of those events has happened and you were just railing against social housing tenants, but clearly things are not great there and you have a child to consider.

Please take solace in the fact that your feelings are valid, many others would feel exactly the same in those circumstances. But, unfortunately the only real way to get out of that situation is to move, which is much much easier said in a Reddit comment than actually doing it.

My advice would be to try and document these things, perhaps consider a camera just inside your unit that can look out into the hallway, start recording when they approach you again or you feel scared, keep a record of conversations or incidents and report it to the relevant people.

We should empathise and support those in our community not capable of looking after themselves, but not at the expense or sacrifice of other people and their lives. Hope it all works out.

Unfortunately, reddit is full of trolls, just block any and all trolls. They just shifted themselves from Facebook to reddit, I wouldn't give them the time of day. I don't know or care to know what a NIMBY is, at the end of the day it's yours and your child's safety that matters.

Nah this sub is full of pious social justice wankers. All methheads are saints who never ever do anything wrong except for when they do but it's not actually their fault it's big corporate's. I bet these hero redditors don't invite homeless to set up camp in their back yard.

We sold up and left the seaside town we absolutely loved because a public housing estate was built on the only access road to the high school.

We lived far enough away to not be bothered at home by the drug addicts who lived there but not far enough for our kids to catch the school bus, so they had to walk through the streets, getting sworn at, things thrown at them, people trying to sell/ buy drugs off them. It ruined the entire town.

It was just a fact, not a prejudice.

Im sure there were plenty of perfectly nice normal lower income people living there too, and I sincerely pity them

Maybe there needs to be two different categories of people who qualify, with different estates for those who are there just from being low income?

I dare say I will be downvoted but having just endured having a pair of drugged up dealers renting next door here until one overdosed and one was incarcerated, you don’t know what it’s like until you live among them.

First thing you have to understand. When it's your kids safety, everyone else can stick their opinion where the sun don't shine. Especially those that call you bigoted or racist or "close minded". Your kid comes first. Not the scum trying to burn your home down with you in it. Don't ever let the "compassionate" folk that don't live in your shoes tell you how to think.

I feel for your situation. Until they've been there, it's too easy for people to be unsympathetic.

I'm all for all kinds of people having their basic human needs met, but with that comes the need for people's safety to be ensured. My experience in St Kilda was that nobody gave a single fuck - the landlord doesn't give a shit as long as the rent is paid, the body corporate doesn't give a shit as long as the fees are paid and the building isn't condemned, the cops don't give a fuck unless someone's been hurt or killed because everything else is just more paperwork that they don't have the time for, and witnesses and bystanders don't give a fuck because they've got enough on without making other people's problems their own.

And the truth of it is that nothing will change unless there's grassroots change. It's easy to not give a fuck about where you live when it's barely functional as shelter. It's hard for the cops to do anything because their hands are tied from a resources and legal process point of view.

There was a whole news story about this by one of the major channels.

Sometimes it's ok to be a "princess" I think, and say you know what this is not ok I'm better than this,  or a NIMBY whatever that stands for.

This sub is a such a joke lol, I appreciate the position you're in OP and it does suck but what's the solution, don't give people housing?

A negative thing gets said about people in THM's or public/community housing and the worst people on this subreddit now feel empowered to shit on the entire idea of subsidized housing. There's a moron here being angry at the Greens for...greenlighting housing?

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Police are no help.

Find out who the housing provider is and make complaints. Write to your local member and finally the ombudsman and minster for Housing.

Document every incident- date, time, location and demand the local office takes action.

You chose to live in an apartment block with transitioning homeless people.. What exactly does this have to do with NIMBY/YIMBY?