It’s three in the morning on a quiet suburban Perth street, and Debra* has been lying awake listening to blood-curdling screaming for hours.
The language is obscene, and her cameras capture the worst of it. A woman is standing out the front of their public housing property, yelling at a man on an e-scooter. He is allegedly committing sexual acts on the social media platform Snapchat, and she’s unhappy about it.
It’s a conversation Debra has to listen to at 3.20am on a weeknight and one, she says, that is by no means an isolated incident.
Debra and her husband Tim* live in the suburb of Rivervale, about 10 minutes outside the Perth city centre and close to the Swan River. The suburb has been in the spotlight recently after business owners banded together to raise problems about ongoing anti-social behaviour and dysfunction along the local shopping strip with the state government.
Most disturbingly, Debra says, is seeing the dozens of children at the house during the school term. One clip of footage shows two women yelling at each other as a toddler in a nappy wanders up the street, completely unsupervised.
The council’s security vehicle won’t drive down their road any more, Debra says. They had rocks hurled at their car and say it is too unsafe for them, and the police are sick of coming to the same address, night after night.
Now in their retirement, Debra says she gets her husband to escort her to her car when she needs to leave.
“We’ve got grandchildren … and we cannot have them here. They’ve been traumatised from the yelling, the swearing, the shouting, people hitting each other – so we can’t have them here. We can’t have them play out the front,” she says.
“Our sleep is awful. It’s every week, and last week [they kept us awake] four times. The police are here all the time, too.”
Her husband Tim says their neighbours are also living in fear.
“[A neighbour] caught two young men from this particular house in his tool shed, carrying power tools out,” he says.
“They abused him, and threatened to beat him up before walking up the road into that house.
“They said to him, ‘We’ll be back’. He was so frightened. He rang us, and we went straight over there, and said we will support you, but you have to report it. Well, [the Department of Housing] said, ‘It has nothing to do with us’, and he needed to phone police.”
Debra estimates over the last three years, the couple have since made more than 60 complaints to WA’s Department of Housing and Works’ disruptive tenant team. Of those, just over a dozen complaints have been substantiated, and only one has ever progressed to court.
“It’s absolutely disgusting. I make the report, and I complain, and then nothing changes – but they start again,” she says.
Debra and Tim say the parameters for making a complaint with the disruptive housing team is far too narrow. It only allows houses directly in front of or neighbouring the home to make a report, and often asks people to put themselves at risk to gather evidence about housing breaches.
Videos are often the only form of conclusive evidence the team accepts, and those who make the complaint must also substantiate that those caught on film are registered to the address. The team cannot penalise behaviour that happens on the street, and there are no requirements for the main tenant to stay at the property.
When a complaint is made, the disruptive housing team will write to the tenant advising them of the issue. The tenants have six weeks to respond, and if they don’t, a lawyer is appointed to them and all their mitigating circumstances are considered.
Debra and Tim say while they understand the need for safeguards, the department is actively avoiding safeguarding the residents who live nearby.
“I would like to see that the the the burden of give the burden of evidence is changed because the burden of the people around to give evidence is totally unacceptable,” Debra says.
“The hoops we have to jump through [is crazy].”
A spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Works said it was aware of the ongoing situation in Rivervale.
“[The department] has pursued a range of measures to address tenancy issues within Rivervale, including partnering with the City of Belmont to respond to illegal dumping and providing skip bins to tenants with property standards concerns,” he said.
“The Department of Housing and Works houses some of the most vulnerable people in our community, who may have complex needs and face challenges which may affect the way in which they manage their tenancy.
“Where issues are identified, the department works closely with the tenant and provides a range of services and supports in an effort to sustain the tenancy. These include mental health services, community legal centres, medical services, disability support providers and family and domestic violence support services.”
The department said it was restricted from acting in a number of ways, and said the court often had a high standard of evidence it needed to comply with.
“The department can only act on tenancy matters that fall within the limits set out by the Residential Tenancy Act. Criminal behaviour, such as hooning and drug dealing, is a matter for the WA Police Force.
“When it can be proven that a public housing property has been used for illegal purposes, the department will take action against that tenancy.
“The decision to terminate a tenancy agreement ultimately sits with a magistrate.”
Debra and Tim are concerned that if the behaviour continues, their quiet retirement will have to be upended for their own mental health.
“We’ve been talking about [moving],” Tim says.
“But it’s $60,000 stamp duty to move. We’re retired, and we’re getting by on our savings. It’s a lot of money.”
Debra agrees.
“I don’t want to be old in this street.”
*Debra and Tim’s identities have been changed for fear of reprisal.