Kāinga Ora tenant in Whangārei living in fear of neighbour

The state housing tenant says she is too afraid to go into her own backyard because of her neighbour's threats. Photo / Tania Whyte

A state house tenant in Whangārei says she is living in fear of her neighbour, after enduring two months of threats.

The tenant, Jessica*, said the man arrived in late February and was the father of the Kāinga Ora house's tenant, who she had not seen since before Christmas.

"We got on with him at first, he talked to us and everything like that. On the fourth of March he just randomly started abusing us.

"We got in the car to go to the supermarket and he just started yelling and screaming at us. He scared the crap out of my daughter who was already in the car ready to go."

The man, who wears a gang patch, also made death threats toward her family, Jessica said.

"He said that if we were to contact any authorities the consequences would be fatal."

After this incident, she contacted Kāinga Ora and went to stay with family for nearly three weeks.

Trouble started again when they came back, with the man still living next door.

"Everything was all good for about a week, two weeks, then all of a sudden he started going off at us again."

Jessica said the neighbour "physically charged" at her partner, who is much smaller than him and has health conditions.

The next day, he "spat down the side of my partner's nephew's car" and tried to get into their house.

"He's ripped open the window, ripped open the curtain and stuck his head in the window."

Jessica's partner called police on both occasions, and she said no action was taken.

Police confirmed that officers responded to both incidents.

"Police spoke to those involved and are making inquiries. As these are ongoing, we have no further comment at this time," a police spokesperson said.

Jessica said Kāinga Ora offered them another house, but it was unsuitable for the family.

"It is nowhere near suitable for us - the room that they wanted my daughter to be in, there's only just room for a single bed, no room for drawers or anything like that."

Jessica said she did not feel safe in her own backyard after the neighbour's threats.

"Since this has happened I can't go outside to do my garden, I can't go out to hang my washing."

A Kāinga Ora housing manager also suggested the family go to an emergency housing motel but it would have been impossible with their pets, Jessica said.

She said the agency's approach made it feel as though they were being punished, instead of the perpetrator.

"We've done absolutely nothing wrong ... it's like, why can't you move this guy on?"

Jeff Murray, Kāinga Ora's regional director Northland. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Jeff Murray, Kāinga Ora's Northland regional director, said the agency was taking Jessica's concerns seriously and looking for an alternative home for her.

"We want all our customers to feel safe in their homes, and while I can't discuss the specific details, Kāinga Ora is using new tools to manage cases of disruptive behaviour in Northland across the motu.

"Our customer facing team in Te Tai Tokerau is being boosted to provide a greater level of engagement with customers, especially the more complex cases and we are also implementing key processes and tools with a strong wellbeing focus."

In February, Kāinga Ora announced a new policy to crack down on disruptive tenants.

Nick Maling, general manager national services, said at the time new provisions in the Residential Tenancies Act would allow them to move tenants on in "extreme situations".

A warnings process would have to take place, Maling said, which would allow the agency to apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to end a tenancy after three incidents in 90 days.

It would only be used in a small number of cases, he said, "where severe and persistent disruptive behaviour is apparent".

"We also do not want to make a customer homeless; we will move them to another Kāinga Ora home and continue to provide them with the intensive support they need to address the causes behind their behaviour."

The announcement came after a series of news stories on disruptive tenants and parliamentary questions which revealed no state housing tenants had been evicted since 2018.

Last November, two Whangārei pensioners told the Herald their neighbours - fellow Kāinga Ora tenants - were terrorising them and had made death threats.

In response, the agency paid for security guards to visit the couple's house five times a day and paid for weekly counselling sessions, but did not evict their neighbours.

* The tenant's name has been changed for safety reasons.