Covid 19 coronavirus: Auckland Vincent St apartments where the community case lives is a chaotic site with government housing clients, robberies and violence

The apartment block where the Covid-19 case lives in the new Auckland community has more than 20 units rented by clients of the Ministry of Social Development and has been the scene of numerous robberies and an assault by a police officer.

On Thursday, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced that an AUT student in her 20s living at Vincent St Residences in Auckland CBD had tested positive for Covid-19 with no ties to the border.

All residents in the new apartment block at 106 Vincent St, which only opened in June, were asked to isolate themselves and undergo a Covid-19 test. Most have returned negative results, however a “weakly positive” result was announced today.

It’s not the only thing residents have had to deal with though, as they have been harassed by recurring mailroom robberies, personal locker raids, and multiple incidents, including a lobby brawl over the past few years. months.

Among the property damage, the hand sanitizer dispenser outside the elevators had a hole in it and had been broken and empty for some time, a resident said.

Between June 1 and October 15, police responded to 15 individual events at Vincent St Residences.

Vincent St Residences building manager Rajeev Chembath said that in one incident, the building’s personal locker room was completely cleaned after a man with a crowbar broke into all of them one night and loaded the contents into a vehicle.

He reported the incident to the police, with CCTV footage.

“A friend of a tenant came in and tore up the whole locker room. So I contacted the agent and asked the tenant to pay for all of that, then I repaired everything,” Chembath said.

“It has happened several times, on different dates, for two months every 15 days or something like that. People are residents, so they have access to go everywhere.

“All the locker rooms have been raided. This happened late at night, at 11:30 pm. Someone also urinated in the locker room.”

What a resident of the Vincent St apartments called a “bloody street fight” also ended with a 30-year-old man accused of assaulting police.

At 9:20 p.m. on October 13, police responded to a report of a drunk bleeding man at the Vincent St.

“Upon the arrival of the police, another man was found nearby who was also intoxicated. This man was taken to the Auckland Custody Unit for detoxification,” police said.

“At one point, he allegedly made a threat to the officers. The man was arrested and charged with assault and intentional harm to the police.”

Chembath told the Herald on Sunday that “more than 20 units” were rented by government-assisted clients, but that he had no direct contact with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and that the rentals were arranged by real estate agents.

“But the agents won’t tell me anything. Basically, the agents will come and show them [the apartment], and everything they will handle from their office and hand over the key, “Chembath said.

However, MSD regional commissioner Mark Goldsmith said the apartment block is not used directly for emergency housing.

“Vincent Residences is not a provider of emergency housing to our clients and we do not ‘rent’ apartments to them,” said Goldsmith.

“We provide help for people with financial assistance, such as the accommodation supplement, to access long-term accommodation. Where someone stays is ultimately their choice.”

“If MSD clients stay in this building, it will be because they have chosen to live there and have obtained a lease with the owner directly or with a property management company.”

However, one resident questioned this, saying that among the other residents of the building “it is common knowledge that there are emergency housing clients here.”

The resident, who asked not to be identified, said the customers appeared to all be on one level of the building.

Another resident who rented a $ 450-a-week unit in the apartment block said people were unprepared for the chaotic environment they had unknowingly moved into.

“You have all these people who have gone and bought these apartments, from $ 500,000 and up,” said the Vincent St.

“They are there for two or three weeks and since some of the landlords can’t get tenants they turn them over to MSD. And suddenly you’re living in quite a different place than the one you bought.”

“But the problems obviously don’t end there.”

The resident said cars with broken windows were often parked outside on the sidewalk.

“Then you go to the storage lockers and on any given day they are going to delete 100 storage lockers, they will empty them completely in a car and they will leave.

“At the moment, the damage has been limited to the mail room, so they have simply barred to open all the mailboxes.

“The next thing I think people are concerned about, I certainly am, is when will they start moving into the apartments? Just roll down the bowling doors?”

The resident said a deep cleaning of the building was underway after the first positive case of Covid-19 was discovered.