Many elderly residents in the 30-storey public housing
blocks known as The Towers of Despair are afraid to go out for fear of being
robbed or assaulted.
Years of attempts to get the authorities to act have come to
naught.
A Safety Audit conducted by police found the area was so
rundown and crime-ridden, with lights not working and amenities in disrepair,
that legitimate users were afraid to go near the park.
Acting Superintendent Bradley Monk said police patrols were
tasked to Waterloo Green on every shift, often to attend to assaults and
alcohol-related crime. However, making it an alcohol-free zone was impossible because
it was departmental property. “It is difficult to tell people they cannot drink
in what is effectively their own front yard,” he said.
Head of local Aboriginal training company Tribal Warrior, Shane Phillips, who was born and
bred in Waterloo, said the people taking their children along to a day of
drinking and drugging at Waterloo Green had little idea that what they were
doing was wrong. He said addiction was like waking up with a light bulb in your
face. You could see little else. And struggling people needed innovative
programs rather than their children removed.
“Taking kids creates resentment and anger,” he said. “I’ve
been to many corporate functions where people are going on as crazy as the people
on Waterloo Green, but they are behind closed doors. We either toss aside the
people who are struggling, or we start helping them break the cycle.”
A spokesman for NSW Minister for Community Services Kevin
Greene said the government funded a large range of services for children in the
Waterloo area.
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Housing said an action plan involving
child welfare and numerous other agencies had been developed to reduce
anti-social behavior associated with the excessive public drinking on Waterloo
Green.
Source:
South Sydney Herald April 2008 – www.southsydneyherald.com.au