By Brendan Rees
Water regularly flows from a crack in the bedroom ceiling of Riley Prowd’s public housing property in Cranbourne.
The home, which she shares with two her siblings who all live with dwarfism, has a list of issues they have lost track of.
One time they reported the growth of mould in various rooms – which they say was covered up with paint by workers. Other urgent problems, they explain, fall on death ears.
Riley’s sister, Sarah Whitaker, 32, who has restrictive lung disease requiring her to use a 24-hour portable oxygen tank to help her breathe, says the rancid smell of the wet carpet – which is slowly turning to mould – is getting worse.
When Sarah told authorities about the concerns she had for her health she was told to “just wear a mask”.
Recent storms have also caused the crack in Riley’s bedroom ceiling to “widen and start leaking” while maintenance jobs are also regularly cancelled at the property, which the siblings have asked not to publish the street name.
Only recently Sarah called to have the light globes changed as they are incapable of doing so – but were “outrightly refused” as it “wasn’t the housing office’s problem”. Sarah said this was fixed soon after contacting Star News.
“With some pushing, they promise to have the job done by the end of the current work day, only to find 5pm roll by and no one has turned up,” she says.
“It’s getting to be unliveable. There’s things we’ve put up for a very long time but it’s getting to a point where it going to be dangerous for our health and no one seems to really care enough about it”.
There are cracks throughout the house; mould on the ceilings, walls and carpet, and the plumbing has problems.
“The government has done no maintenance in the 20 years we have lived there,” Sarah adds.
Following a deluge just weeks ago, workers took out some damp insulation but were “not willing to do anything” about the wet carpet.
On Monday 24 February, workers attended the house – which has been modified to cater the needs of the siblings – and steamed cleaned the carpet of Riley’s bedroom despite reporting the issue years ago.The other rooms were left uncleaned as they had not been reported to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“They just do the bare minimum,” Sarah says.
In March, Sarah will be moving to a student’s residence in Bundoora as she prepares to study a Bachelor of Creative Arts at La Trobe University full time but hopes for the sake of her brother, 29, and sister something will be done soon.
“It’s frightening that they just don’t care enough about us”.
In statement, a DHHS spokesperson said the department “immediately took action” to repair the roof, ceiling and carpet of the property when we were notified. of their condition.“The roof has been repaired, the carpets will be replaced and have been dry vacuumed in the meantime, and work on the ceiling is due to be completed in the next week,” the spokesperson said.
DHHS states it had no record of a complaint or concern prior to 18 February this year regarding the current issue with the property’s roof.
The department spent $166.1 million on public housing maintenance in 2017-18.
