Safe as houses

Vacant houses can be a magnet for squatters, vandals and thieves, so in a bid to combat this, a pilot scheme between police and Housing New Zealand has been launched in the country, in which ‘house guardians' are assigned an empty property on a street near their house and given duties such as emptying the mailbox...

The scheme, which first launched in July last year, is aimed at protecting vacant houses which are waiting to be assigned to tenants.

The house guardians empty the mailbox each day, keep the property looking lived in and take down descriptions of anyone seen loitering around the premises and record car registrations before passing them on to their Housing New Zealand tenant manager.

The neighbourhood is able to take ownership of their local area and, as the guardians work voluntarily, it creates a great sense of team spirit and neighbourly bonding.

This initiative has already brought a huge drop in crime and vandalism in Manurewa, which is the town in which is being trialled first.

New schemes are often trialled first in the New Zealand market due to its manageable size and are then rolled out to other countries if successful.

Senior Sergeant Neil Fisher of Manurewa says up to 40 per cent of vacant houses in the area had been vandalised last July. That figure dropped to just six per cent in November.

"We get people stealing copper systems, water systems - like taps - and young people breaking into the houses and tagging inside. All that's been reduced, it's great," he added.

Vandalism to vacant homes was attracting more serious crime so it was essential to nip it in the bud.

The drop in the number of houses being vandalised means the cost of repairing them - once around £20,000 - has also dropped to around £400.

Mr Fisher said there were plans to expand the programme into the wider community.

Picture by rightee