"It was like a trauma centre. I largely ignored the screams, because you heard screams all the time. After a number of years, you just didn't react to them anymore."

That's how Andrew* describes Stainforth Court, the troubled public housing estate in Hobart where he lived for 10 years.

Key points: Stainforth Court was built in the late 1950s in Hobart

Stainforth Court was built in the late 1950s in Hobart By the early 2000s, it was synonymous with drugs and crime

By the early 2000s, it was synonymous with drugs and crime In 2011, a murder at the public housing estate was the catalyst for change

In 2011, a murder at the public housing estate was the catalyst for change But not everyone won when the estate was transformed

"I'd be a little apprehensive every time I drove home," he says.

"On one occasion I came home and someone had just been stabbed. There were many occasions where vehicles would be ablaze."

A brutal murder would be the catalyst for change at Stainforth Court, once described by a social worker as a "waiting room for hell".

But questions still remain over whether that change came at the expense of people like Andrew, who called the estate home.

'There were fire bombings'

Stainforth Court was built in the late 1950s, riding on the optimism of post-war reconstruction.

There were more than 80 apartments in the distinctly modernist estate in New Town, just 10 minutes from the city centre.

But by the early 2000s it had become synonymous with drugs and crime, and fallen into disrepair.

Its reputation was so bad that even homelessness services advised their clients not to accept apartments there.

Nathaniel Roach, a former Stainforth Court resident, says he used to see blood on the walls. ( ABC RN: Emma Lancaster )

Nathaniel Roach, another former resident, says the social upheaval at Stainforth Court was intense.

"There was fire bombings, domestic violence, people getting into fights. Aggressive behaviour all over the place," he says.

"I would come home and there would be blood on the walls."

"I mean there were quiet periods, don't get me wrong, but on average it was happening about once a month."

Stigmatised but also home

Andrew says one of the most difficult things about Stainforth Court was dealing with the stigma that came with living there.

He never told anyone he lived there, and it's why he will only speak now on the condition of anonymity, more than six years since he moved out.

"We were all tarred with the same brush regardless of who you were," he says.

"If you lived at Stainforth Court you were obviously a lowlife."

But the four tower blocks that made up Stainforth Court were also the place that he and many others called home.

"While there was this stigma outside, there was certainly a sense that you had the support of the people around you," Andrew says.

"We'd band together, like a family. I could truly depend on support from other residents."

Ian Paulin, who lived and worked at Stainforth Court as a community mentor, agrees.

As a community mentor at Stainforth, Ian Paulin noticed how residents were generous to each other. ( ABC RN: Georgia Moodie )

"There's always that rough diamond thing," he says.

"People with very rough exteriors who are actually enormously generous and kind to each other."

'A weeping social sore'

Cassy O'Connor, the leader of the Tasmanian Greens, was the state housing minister when the social upheaval at Stainforth Court was at its worst.

"We got there I think, through a series of housing ministers throwing their hands up about Stainforth Court," she says.

Cassy O'Connor says Stainforth Court was a "failure of policy", repeated over decades. ( ABC RN: Emma Lancaster )

One of Ms O'Connor's ministerial predecessors, Lin Thorp, had even canvassed knocking down the apartment blocks or selling the land to private developers in an attempt to solve the problems at the estate.

"It became neglected because it was just so hard to deal with," Ms O'Connor says.

"The resources went into other areas and Stainforth Court was just left there like a weeping social sore."

A vicious crime

In the early hours of February 18, 2011, a brutal bashing took place at the estate.

Resident Shayne Waller was attacked in his apartment and was left with permanent brain-damage. His nephew Michael Williams was also attacked, and died later that day.

The two perpetrators, who both served jail time over the attack, did not live at Stainforth Court.

But their crime spurred the government into action.

"I remember just feeling sick with sadness," Ms O'Connor says.

"It brought home to everyone who was part of the management of Stainforth Court that this was untenable."

And so, in October 2012, Ms O'Connor announced a radical plan.

The Tasmanian Housing Department would move all of the tenants out of Stainforth Court, and renovate the dilapidated estate.

Andrew fights back tears as he remembers what it was like to leave the apartment that had been his home for 10 years.

"As long as you paid your rent, and looked after your property, you weren't going to lose your home," he says.

"Regardless of what you'd seen, what had happened, bottom line, it was your home.

"I hadn't had the stability I had at Stainforth Court all of my life. So there was quite a bit emotion running through me when I closed the door for the final time."

The reopening

One year and $8.5 million later, the renovated estate opened with a new name, Queens Walk Apartments.

Andrew has looked at it from the carpark, but has never set foot on its grounds.

"Maybe it's good that I've closed the door on that place. Because it's not the same place," he says.

He still has questions about exactly what motivated the closure of Stainforth Court.

Stainforth Court was renovated into Queens Walk Apartments. ( ABC RN: Emma Lancaster )

"I got a sense that it wasn't just that they wanted to renovate the complex, but rather clean it out," he says.

"I'm talking about people. Was it just about renovating and modernising? Or was it about something else? Was there a social aspect to it as well?"

Dr Kathleen Flanagan, the deputy director of the Housing and Community Research Unit at the University of Tasmania, says there are often "tensions in redevelopments of problematic areas of public housing".

"Often, the place is improved at the expense of the people who lived there," she says.

"They're moved on, new people come in, and the place is now OK. But what happened to the original residents?"

According to the housing department, all of the former tenants of Stainforth Court were rehoused through the public housing system.

Only one tenant expressed an interest in returning to the renovated apartments, and a unit was earmarked for him.

But in the end, he decided against moving back.

Fighting over the crumbs

The Queens Walk Apartments are managed by Housing Choices Australia, a not-for-profit community housing provider for people struggling to find affordable housing.

Unlike public housing, community housing providers have power over who they select to live in their properties.

As a result, some providers have been accused of 'cherry-picking' tenants.

But Lisa Roberts from Housing Choices says it isn't that black-and-white.

"I can tell you that the last 10 allocations that I did were all from the top of the waitlist," she says.

Pattie Chugg from Housing Choices says the broader issue to consider is a severe lack of affordable housing. ( ABC RN: Emma Lancaster )

Pattie Chugg from Shelter Tasmania, the state's peak body for housing and homelessness services, is aware of the cherry-picking concerns.

But she says that's still better than going back to the way things were run at Stainforth Court.

The bigger problem, she says, is a severe lack of affordable housing.

"This is what happens when you don't have enough affordable housing," Ms Chugg says.

"Rather than fighting over the crumbs around the cake, you really need a bigger cake all the time."

And right now, hundreds of thousands of Australians are fighting over those crumbs.

There are almost 200,000 households on the waiting list for public housing, and many will wait more than a year before being allocated a place to live.

According to the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Australia needs to triple its stock of public and community housing over the next 20 years to keep up with demand.

"[Stainforth Court] was a failure of policy in part because it concentrated disadvantage," Ms O'Connor says.

"But it was a failure that was repeated over decades in Australia's public housing policy.

"Every Australian city has those pockets of concentrated disadvantage."

For Nathaniel, who lived at Stainforth Court until it was closed down, the stark contrast between his old home and the newly renovated estate came as a shock.

The first and only time he visited Queens Walk, he cried "because it looked really nice".

"I cried because my time living there was actually really hard, and it was a really bleak place," he says.

He agrees much more needs to be done to solve the problems with our housing market, but says it was good to see that the renovation of Stainforth Court was a success.

"You know, we need a lot more than just renovating one block of flats to make a huge difference," he says.

"But it was enough of a difference to me."

*Name has been changed.