Aroha Te Hau lives next door and says she called the police after noticing people had broken in and “smashed the place up”.
“It's attracting the wrong kind of people, desperate people. For us who are on the other side of the fence, we're waking up to the dogs barking, hearing things going on in the house,” Ms Te Hau said.
“It's unsettling for us.I am concerned about my house being safe.”
Ms Te Hau said she had contacted Kāinga Ora three times on their website about the house, including for overgrown lawns, which were later tended to.
She suspected people had been living inside because windows had been left slightly ajar and curtains had been pulled and opened.
“My concern is that it's going to go from bad to worse. When are they going to put a family in there . . . a good family?
“It's sitting empty and it could be a really good home for someone else.”
On the day Local Democracy Reporting visited, holes were visible in walls while a pile of clothing, a mattress and broken glass littered the yard. A window had been boarded up.
Tairawhiti-based housing advocate Tuta Ngarimu is disappointed it's taken so long to find a solution for the abandoned house as he works hard to find places for people in the community.
Mr Ngarimu was critical of the home being left to fall into disrepair, saying Kāinga Ora weren't displaying urgency.
He had heard the inside had been trashed and described the situation as “not good enough”.
“We're fielding calls from whanau who are living in their cars — kaumatua who are on the verge of homelessness.
Kāinga Ora regional director East North Island Naomi Whitewood acknowledged the house was in a “very poor state of repair” and was not suitable for relocation or deconstruction.
It had meth contamination and had been earmarked for development.
“The home will be demolished in the next few months. In the meantime neighbours and the public should not enter the site”, she said.
“Details about when the demolition is due to take place will be shared with neighbours prior to this occurring.”
Ms Whitewood said a housing support manager had been to the address after a member of the public made contact, but no evidence had been found of people squatting there.
According to Ministry of Social Development data for the quarter ended December 31, there are 108 households living in emergency housing in Tairāwhiti — 114 adults and 108 children.
A total of $3.1 million was given out in emergency housing grants in Tairāwhiti during that period.
As at September 30, 2022, there were 576 people on the Ministry of Social Development's housing waiting list for the region.
More new homes are on their way soon in Manuka Street and Stout Street while construction will start soon on 21 homes on Gladstone/Mill Road.
Kāinga Ora has an agreement to purchase homes off developers in Stout Street and in Tamarau.
In the last 12 months, it has delivered 54 new public homes in Tairāwhiti.
A contaminated Kāinga Ora home that has sat empty for more than half a year is falling into serious disrepair after being broken into multiple times, a concerned neighbour says.